As the World Trade Center burned on September 11th, 2001, a desire to serve in the armed forces caused a surge across the country and military recruiters had to do little more than point to the dotted line for young men and women to sign up.
Chris Cravens was one of those motivated by the terror attacks to join and serve his country within the United States Marine Corps. He would go on to lead Marines in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan in the Sangin Valley, Fallujah, Ramadi and Kajaki.
Along with experiencing intense combat, he experienced the loss of fellow Marines — a loss he’s now turning into action as part of the newly-launched 3C Foundation.
“A lot of it's driven from Gold Star families,” Cravens said.
He calls himself the chief storyteller of the foundation.
Through it, he plans to tell the stories of his fellow Marines, LCpl. Joshua Klinger, Cpl. William “Coop” Cooper, Captain Brandon Barrett, Sgt. Josh Desforges, Cpl. Philip McGeath, and Cpl. Chris Bordoni — all lost to war.
“We put all those stories together and we've extrapolated motivating pieces and sacrifice pieces, leadership pieces,” Cravens said. “The stories are extrapolated from people that I've been adjacent to, these great, amazing people that let me be next to them, serve next to them, serve with them."
By sharing their stories and the different scenarios that played out throughout their service during deployment, he hopes to share their layers of leadership and character that can be applied in companies or groups he speaks to as part of the foundation.
“I don't care if it's not-for-profit, for-profit, a community organization, the stories that we tell and how they emulate the core of what leadership is, and the core motivation, the core sacrifice — if organizations can take that away and provide it to people within their organization that are working together, there's no better training. There's no better seminar, there's no better keynote or kickoff, than telling the stories about these heroes,” Cravens said.
While his 3C Foundation is focused on sharing those stories and the leadership and sacrifice within them, his foundation also has a mission of supporting Gold Star Families in a variety of ways, including building and maintaining monuments that enshrine the service member's sacrifice for years to come.
“We want to put those funds into places, we want to focus on Gold Star families, their needs, whether it's reunions with the unit to hear about how amazing their sons and daughters were, building monuments,” Cravens said. “There's a lot of dollars for those that were fallen right when it happens and it trickles off, but those memorials continue to stand.”
Through the foundation Cravens plans to support organizations that are actively helping give veterans a hand up and are doing so in a successful fashion.
“I think there's a lot of really good organizations,” Cravens said. “To be able to overlay that on this organization and give back to the groups that are doing the most good and the families that don't want to be the face for their son or daughter, that's something that we should absorb. And that's what we're attempting to support with this foundation.”
The 3C Foundation kickoff event will take place April 26 at the Anderson Center at 7850 Five Mile Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45230.
You can register for the free kickoff event by following this link or engage on Facebook.
If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.
