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YouTube videos for a friend and fellow officer
Bomb squad memeber deployed in Iraq injured
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Officer Joshua Cullins		   YouTube videos for a friend and fellow officer
Bomb squad memeber deployed in Iraq injured

by LAPPL Board of Directors

August 23, 2010

He was serving his country as a Marine reservist in Afghanistan when the 15-pound roadside bomb Marine Staff Sgt. and LAPD officer Joshua Cullins was disarming exploded. Joshua suffered a concussion in the blast and when the alarming news reached LAPD's Central Division, his fellow officers turned to YouTube to send a pair of get-well-soon messages to their friend and colleague.

As recounted in a must-read story by LA Times' writer Bob Pool, Captain Daryl Russell remembered that one of his officers, David Marroquin, was experienced at producing videos.
 

Marroquin proceeded to record personal messages to Cullins on video starting off with Chief Beck. Then Marroquin recruited a friend, actor-musician J. Hunter Ackerman, to write a song to accompany the get-well messages for an MTV-style music video.

The completed two-part video began streaming on YouTube late last week. The polished music video labeled "Hunter Ackerman — Welcome Home” quickly received nearly 4,000 “hits” and scores of favorable comments from viewers touched by the bravery and sacrifice of a true American hero.

It speaks volumes about Josh that his friends here at home went the extra mile to let him know how they feel about him, and to wish him a speedy and full recovery. We don't know if the music video will win an MTV award (it should!), but it will long be remembered in the LAPD ranks as an outstanding tribute to Josh and the thousands of men and women who serve their country at home and abroad.