Cpt. Dick Koteki, Marine Corps
Sgt James C. Dunning, data chief and network administrator, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unirt command element, reaches for a "c-rat" in a care package Octll.
11/23/04
More ‘C-Rats’ and Faster
From the Marine Corps Times
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A former devil dog looking for a better way to get care packages to leather necks of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, two years ago now is moving tons of ‘c-rats' — civilian rations — to service members in all four branches.
Not only that, but retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Albert Renteria, who spent 26 years in the Corps and founded Operation Interdependence, is teaming with the Toys For Tots campaign in a 17-state tour that will collect both c-rats for troops and toys for children.
"We're hoping to get 200 [c-rat boxes] per location — 50 for each branch," he said Oct. 12.
Renteria served during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and saw the difficulties in getting civilian care packages to deployed Marines.
“The OI concept is to have no one in the military who has to be a middleman for care packages. Volun teers do it," he said, which means fewer military admin types are needed to handle the packages.
OI also teaches civilians how to package c-rats to be moved more efficiently — each no more than 30 pounds — and be of greater value to the troops, for example, by packing items in reusable plastic baggies.
OI recently earned recognition, and $4,000 in funding, from Newman's Own, the nonprofit group founded by actor Paul Newman to support charitable causes.
The Oceanside, Calif. based organization has 11 distribution centers, but Renteria's goal is to have one in each state.