Welcome to Camp Pendleton Patch

I’m Jared Morgan, your Camp Pendleton Patch editor. I’m a multimedia journalist and a former Camp Pendleton Marine. Welcome to our site and soon, we hope, your site.

Camp Pendleton Patch is part of the Patch.com national network of community news and information websites. We’re also the first in a series of Patch Military websites dedicated to connecting with military personnel and their families. 

This is where you'll find the coverage that matters to you and the broader military community. It's also your site to build and develop with us.

Use Camp Pendleton Patch to post announcements: Is your loved one returning from Afghanistan? Tell the community. Post events like fundraisers, poetry readings, exercise group meetings, pub-crawls, church gatherings and school events. You can also use the site to find out about volunteer opportunities. Looking for volunteers for your organization? You can post a request to this site. The best part is it’s all free.

Have you heard about Patch’s new Local Voices blogging platform? Write about anything you like. Just keep it local, and you could find your blog on the front page of Camp Pendleton Patch. If you'd like to learn more, just email me.

In case you're wondering, here’s a little bit about my military service:   

I joined the Marine Corps in 2001 and served with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 in the military occupational specialty of aviation maintenance administration until being honorably discharged in 2005.

While working in helicopter maintenance, I was tasked with keeping track of life-limited components for the UH-1N Huey and the AH-1W Cobra, and to ensure those components were replaced or overhauled within the safety-mandated timeframe.

I was at the Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait in 2003 for the automatic chemical agent detector alarms that sounded frequently during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, sporting full Mission Oriented Protective Posture gear to guard against possible chemical attacks from Saddam Hussein’s military.

In 2004, I deployed to Iraq with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. While in Al Asad, enemy mortaring was a common occurrence. You just had to trust in the law of probability to keep from worrying about being hit by one. A several-thousand gallon fuel bladder took a mortar round one day, sending a pillar of fire and billowing black smoke high into the air. Another day, a corner of the base theater’s roof was blown off by a mortar round.

Later I was part of a small Huey and Cobra detachment in Al Qa’im, Iraq, assigned to keep foreign insurgents from filtering in from bordering Syria.

Military service helped me develop the discipline I employ today. I’m a veteran now, like 21.9 million others as of 2009 nationwide, according the U.S. Census Bureau. I’m happy to have been able to use my service as a stepping stone in my career as a community journalist.

I’m looking forward to connecting with you—and helping you connect with the rest of this proud military community. Email, phone or connect with me via Twitter or on Facebook. Like you, we're here to serve.