Always thankful

Deepa Bharath

For 20-year-old Tyler Gray, home is 2,428 miles and two time zones

away.

The U.S. Marine looked at his watch as he sat in the living room

of Joy and Chris Wynkoop’s Cameo Highlands home.

“My parents and sisters must’ve eaten by now,” he said of his

family in Blackshear, Ga. “This is my first Thanksgiving away from

home.”

Two days ago, Gray also watched a birthday go by without his

family by his side. The Marine, who is part of Camp Pendleton’s 1st

Battalion, 1st Marines -- an infantry unit that the city of Newport

Beach adopted in December -- will be deployed yet again in less than

two weeks. So, Gray and thousands of other Marines will be spending

Christmas even farther away from their respective families.

But on Thursday, Gray and Marine J’son Townes and his wife Erica

were guests of the Wynkoops, who offered to make the Marines a part

of their family get-together on Thanksgiving Day.

J’son Townes said he and his wife were touched by the family’s

generosity.

“I grew up with four sisters, a baby brother and a ton of

cousins,” said the 25-year-old corporal from Tulsa, Okla. “And every

Thanksgiving, we’d have the whole family together. It’s always a big

deal back home.”

But this year, when his sergeant asked him what he was doing on

Thanksgiving Day, he replied: “Just hanging out, I guess.”

So, when his sergeant asked him if he and his wife wanted to share

the day with a family in Newport Beach, the couple gladly took the

offer.

“To see any family on this day puts a big smile on your face,”

Townes said.

For the Wynkoops, the decision to do this came naturally. Joy

Wynkoop comes from a family that has had and continues to have

affiliations with the U.S. Marine Corps.

“My dad was a Marine who was in three wars -- World War II, Korea

and Vietnam,” she said. “It’s a privilege for us to have these

Marines in our home.”

Now, her 20-year-old son Ben Wynkoop is a Marine, based in North

Carolina. Ben, a Corona del Mar High School graduate, was home for

Thanksgiving after returning only last month from a six-month

deployment to Japan.

Chris Wynkoop, a full-time accountant and a part-time magician,

goes to Marine bases twice a month to entertain them with his act. On

Thursday, he had two wine bottles with specially made labels on them.

They each bore the names of the two marines -- their special guests

for the day.

“We’re so proud of these guys,” he said. “We appreciate everything

they do for our country.”

Gray, who visited his family in Georgia two weeks ago, had already

celebrated an early Thanksgiving with them.

“Yeah, that was cool,” he said. “But it’s nice that [the Wynkoops]

would have us here and share their Thanksgiving meal with us. It

makes you feel good.”