Hello, my name is Nelson Martinez. I am a retired Marine, husband, and father of 4. I retired summer of 2018 after 22 years of service. Throughout my service, I had various combat tours and assignments, making it difficult to have a Disney World trip, much less plan it. While in the Marine Corps, I dedicated myself to accomplishing the mission first. I often put the Corps and mission first and my family second, and I could only do this through my wife, children, friends, and family's support. Both my wife and I sacrificed much to make our time in the Corps work. I deployed three times to Iraq between 2003 and 2009. I also deployed twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to Africa and Afghanistan in 2001-02 and again to Afghanistan in 2010. In between deployments, I was assigned to commands that trained Sailors or Marines for combat deployments or headquarters commands that planned combat deployments for various units. I also spent time at the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Batallion in 2011. My time at Wounded Warrior Battalion was to take care of injuries I sustained in 2003 deployed to Iraq and a TBI I received in 2010 while deployed to Afghanistan. Between 2001 and 2010, I was heavily deployed and ignored many physical, mental, and emotional issues and injuries to accomplish the mission overseas. Like many veterans during that time, the mission to fight and train for combat came first. Because of that, many veterans, myself included, caused and faced issues not just for ourselves but for our families. Our families sacrificed greatly to help us accomplish our mission. Now that I have been retired for some time and our children are a little older, we can finally plan a trip to Disney World. We have never taken a "true" family vacation for the reasons described above, and we have always taken short weekend trips somewhere or made the best of our children's sports events requiring travel. This year, however, my spring break from college classes and our kids' spring break from elementary and high school line up, making it easy to plan a family trip. Our family is a total of 6. My wife and I have three boys, aged 22, 16, and 9, and our daughter, 14. I am asking for help to purchase 6 tickets for our family to Disney World for the week of March 6-11, 2023. I would greatly appreciate any help to make this dream possible for my family. This trip will be a blessing for our family's many sacrifices. I thank everyone ahead of time for helping me make this dream come true for them SEMPER FIDELIS!
U.S. Marine Corps (Severely Wounded Veteran)
1996 - 2018
Wish Fulfilled By:
- VICTOR donated $10.00
- Kalati donated $25.00
- Daniel donated $25.00
- Alec donated $10.00
- Sean donated $10.00
- A Generous Person donated $20.00
- Christopher donated $25.00
- A.C. donated $25.00
- Bryant donated $25.00
- Rita in Honor of Col Steve Rohlena donated $50.00
- Katie in Honor of Nicholas Mattingly donated $775.00
- Aniello donated $50.00
- Sharlet in Honor of All Servicemembers and Veterans donated $20.00
- Rebecca donated $10.00
- Angela in Honor of Active Duty Mothers donated $25.00
- Brett donated $25.00
- Saleisia donated $5.00
- Chuan J. donated $265.00
- A Generous Person donated $22.00
- A Generous Person donated $100.00
- A Generous Person donated $20.00
- Thomas in Honor of You,GySgt Martinez, thank u 4 ur service donated $100.00
- Cyndy in Honor of John Hollender-Paul Stancliff-Spouses donated $25.00
- A Generous Person donated $25.00
- A Generous Person donated $10.00
- Katy donated $20.00
- Jeff donated $478.00
- Remainder of Wish fulfilled by the Veteran Tickets Foundation General Hero's Wish Fund.
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