BACKGROUND:
Warrant Officer Jeffrey D. Neikirk, and his wife, Susan, were forced to cancel a $3700 vacation, booked via Orbitz, an internet travel company, when the Marine reservist was deployed to Kuwait.
Orbitz, at first, refused the couple's request for a refund or credit towards a future vacation.
Marine Cpl. Francis E. (Jim) DeVine (retired) heard of the couple's ordeal and posted details on
www.military.com

The resulting letter writing campaign by fellow Marines caused the Orbitz Company to "admit an oversight".

Orbitz has since refunded the couple's money,
and also offered them free airline tickets and a $200 discount for a future vacation.

The campaign was publicized in the READING EAGLE newspaper.

Jim credits the letters written to Orbitz as a result of his initial posting of the couple's dilemma on www.military.com as well as other Marine message boards for the successful resolution of this situation.

BOTTOM LINE:
It should be noted that beyond the refund that was granted by Orbitz...
the real story here is how, once again, Marines have taken care of their own.
Even Susan Neikirk didn't fully understand the camaraderie of THE USMC.
Jim is proud of, but not surprised by, the quick and overwhelming response
from those Marines who became aware of this fellow Marine family in trouble.

We offer the following scanned newspaper article (see link below)
as an archived salute to those who participated in this endeavor.

Click MAY 06 NEWSPAPER LINK to see the article as it appeared in May 06, 2003 Reading Eagle.