Facilitators Jenna Weiss-Berman and Kemba Bloodworth went along with the Mobile Booth on the five hour trek from Charlotte, North Carolina to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

We were greeted by our gracious Marine escorts Corporal Meier and Lieutenant Thomas, who both work in the Public Affairs Office at Camp Lejeune. We parked the booth in front of the base’s own department store, the Marine Corps Exchange.

Corporal Meier and Lieutenant Thomas then took a look around the booth.

Some of our first interview subjects were Marines Nick DiOrio, of CaÃ’on City, Colorado, and Patrick Fleischman, from the Bronx, New York. Both men are combat journalists in the Marines. Nick takes his video camera wherever he goes, and Patrick is a photographer. Patrick knew he wanted to pursue combat journalism, and he told us that he could think of no better way to do that than by actually joining the military and being among the people he wanted to document. Nick recounted his time filming the current war in Afghanistan, where he was exposed to an entirely new, different, and interesting culture and way of life.