QUANTICO, Va. – Despite a relatively high turnout and a large amount of publicity, Marine officials announced that this year's first Marine Corps Spelling Bee — an offshoot of the more famous Marine Corps Marathon — will also be its last.
The winner, Sgt. Maj. Pedro Severo from the 4th Marine Division's command element, emerged victorious from three days of elimination rounds after properly spelling the word "gun." He defeated Major Jake Andrejcik from Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, who became confused over what he was trying to spell while using the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Sgt. Maj. Severo's prize will be a free write-in-the-rain pad and his name on the Marine Corps Spelling Bee trophy, which unfortunately misspelled it as "Seevero."
The idea for a Marine Corps-wide spelling bee was originally the brainchild of Col. Maurice "Dan" Marino, assigned to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va, and featured words which Marino said were taken straight from the Marine Corps Institute's popular "Spelling 4 Marines" course.
