MTX 2022

NEW ORLEANS – Sgt. Bryan Sanford, a Marine Corps Community Services Assistant with Marine Forces Reserve, speaks with students at the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy, Oct. 29, 2015, during Red Ribbon Week. Sanford informed the students that Red Ribbon Week began a few years after the death of DEA agent and former Marine, Enrique Camarena. Agent Camarena was in the process of making a major drug bust of a Mexican drug Cartel in the 1980s. Agent Camarena, along with his pilot, were captured, tortured, and murdered for their attempted actions in 1985. In light of the situation, Agent Camarena's family and friends back home in California started "Camarena's Club" to raise drug awareness. Ultimately, this movement was brought to the attention of President and First Lady Reagan. In 1988, the first National Red Ribbon Week began. (Marine Corps Photo by Cpl. J. Gage Karwick/Released)