 As part of the Marine Corps Executive Forum, a group of elected officials, business executives, and other influential leaders set out to spend a day with the Corps, learning about everything from current concepts and programs to Marine Corps history. The Marine Corps Executive Forum is a program that allows the Marine Corps to partner with cities and states throughout the country to advance the Marine Corps' specific interests. In this case, the Marine Corps Executive Forum is focusing on working with individuals from certain cities and geographic areas that are strategic to the Marine Corps' interests. Marine Week is one of those interests, and for example, today we're hosting 15 guests from the Cleveland, Ohio area, which is the future site of Marine Week 2012. The day-long event took the participants to the Pentagon on a helicopter ride to the basic school aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, and to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. They learned how the Corps works operationally, the function of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, how to fire four current weapons systems, and got an in-depth history lesson on the Corps. The Marine Corps Executive Forum gets a lot of value out of this event because it allows us to create ambassadors to the Marine Corps. It truly does. This is an opportunity for us to partner with very senior individuals and influential citizens from these specific cities, and we create friends, and we leverage these relationships for the veterans of the Marine Corps. Experiences of participants gave them a foundation of how the Marine Corps works and demonstrates capabilities. With their new working knowledge of the Corps, they can go back to their home cities and maintain a comprehensive working relationship with Marine leaders, paving the way for future operational success. From Washington, this is Lance Corporal Christopher Banks.