Tulsan featured in ad for Marines

by: MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
9/23/2009 10:57:28 AM

Watch the new Marine Corps commercial

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A Tulsan is one of three Marines to be featured in a recruiting commercial now being aired on national television.

Lance Cpl. Benjamin Lee, 25, a 2003 graduate of Edison High School, said it was an honor to be chosen for the commercial, and he called the final product "awesome."

The minute-long Marines commercial debuted on CBS during Saturday's University of Tennessee-University of Florida football game.

It was aired again Sunday during "The NFL Today" show and was shown during Monday night's ESPN coverage of the Indianapolis Colts-Miami Dolphins football game. The advertisement will continue to run during regional and national NFL games.

Lee is featured in the commercial along with Lance Cpl. Oscar Franquez Jr. of Canyon Country, Calif., and Lance Cpl. Martin McCallum of Freeport, N.Y. All are members of the Marine Corps' Silent Drill Platoon, based in Washington, D.C.

The commercial opens with the three as civilians, racing on foot to answer the nation's call, and ends with the three in full-dress Marine uniforms performing rifle maneuvers.

Lee said his relatives and friends have seen the commercial and that they could hardly contain their excitement.

He said the commercial took a week to make, and he called the experience "a blast."

Lee said he and the others were selected for the commercial through a screening process that looked for Marines who exemplify the greatest traditions of the Corps.

Lee was captain of the soccer team at Edison. After high school, he attended Tulsa Community College and then worked for a while before he joined the Marines nearly three years ago.

Lee said he decided to enlist in the military out of a sense of patriotism and also to improve his life.

But he said he chose the Marines "because I wanted to serve with the best."

He said his father also was a Marine. His maternal grandfather was in the Navy, he said.

Lee called the Corps' Silent Drill Platoon prestigious.

"It's a very select few who get to be a part of this" platoon, he said.

"We're the ambassadors; the face of the Marines. We represent what the Marine Corps should look like," Lee said.

"Who wouldn't want to be a part of something this big? It's a tremendous honor."

Another Tulsan previously starred in a Marine Corps national recruiting television commercial in 2002.

Lance Cpl. Bill Collver, a 2000 graduate of Jenks High School, was featured in a one-minute advertisement.

Ellie