Cpl. Anthony McCormick, with the Camp Foster staff judge advocate’s office, poses Tuesday at the Exchange New Car Sales lot on Camp Foster with the prize he won in a worldwide drawing: a new 2007 Dodge Caliber. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A Camp Foster Marine was surprised to learn he won a new car in a worldwide contest, he said Tuesday.
Cpl. Anthony McCormick, with the Camp Foster staff judge advocate’s office, was told he had won a 2007 Dodge Caliber, worth about $17,000, during an intermission at Sunday’s Far East Bodybuilding Tournament at the Camp Butler Theater. He had been told he needed to be at the tournament to brief a new member of the Exchange New Car Sales staff on the status of forces agreement, he said.
“I had forgotten all about [the contest],” said McCormick, who couldn’t remember when he entered in the drawing for the car.
The two-phase “Ready, Aim, Fire, Caliber” sweepstakes ran from May 15 to June 18, said Shaun Bullman, an Exchange New Car Sales agent here. All U.S. military and attached civilians, 18 and older, were eligible to enter, he explained.
In the sweepstakes’ first round, two names were drawn from among contestants from each installation or ship, Bullman said. This put about 20,000 entries into the second round.
McCormick’s name was chosen from that 20,000 in a drawing at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany, on July 4.
When he rotates back to the United States next summer, he will be able to go to the Foster Exchange New Car Sales office to choose his choice of options and have the car shipped to an address in the States, Bullman said.
“The only things he has to pay for are the taxes, title and tags,” he said.
McCormick said he was “very surprised” when he learned he’d won the car. “That,” he said, “was the best SOFA brief I ever had to give.”
