Marines visit sick children at UCSF Benioff hospital during Fleet Week

About a dozen U.S. Marines and Blue Angels took time out from their normal Fleet Week duties to visit with some sick children at a San Francisco hospital on Tuesday.

The crew dropped by the playroom at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Mission Bay earlier this afternoon where there were smiles all around.

"Am I winning?" yelled one Kameron Oeurn as he gleefully smashed his thumbs on trigger of the Rock 'Em sock 'Em Robots Game while twirling backwards. "I don't know," hollered the Blue Angel. "I think you're winning!"
The patients that the crews met with today are seriously ill; some of them have battled cancer for years.

"C-5" said a stoic-looking Levi Hansen. "C-5?" asked the Marine. "I think you got a hit."

Levi smiled sheepishly as Marine Staina Marroquin picked up a peg. This is the game of Battleship. It's something Marroquin is all too familiar with in real life. Marroquin performs maintenance on helicopters on naval ships, which sailed into the San Francisco Bay from Miramar a few days ago. He and the others explained to Levi, that in REAL life, they wouldn't want anyone sinking their battleship.

"Aw, it's the best," said Marroquin on his visit to the hospital. "I mean, I have two kids of my own, so being here to spend some time it just see 'em smile you know, enjoy their part of the day, it's the greatest ."

Two little girls in the room giggled as one Marine tried to play tea with them.

"Oh, you put Olaf and the firefighter having tea?" he asked as he stretched for a tea cup. The two then shook their heads when the Marine held up a Prince Charming doll.

"You don't want tea with Prince Charming?" the Marine jokingly scoffed. "Ok, Prince Charming won't have tea then. What about Donald Duck?" he asked. The girls nod yes. "Yes!" screamed the Marine. "I finally got one right!"

The kids in the playroom seemed to have an idea who their visitors were.

"I'm a maintenance chief with the Blue Angels," explained one. "Do you know what the Blue Angels are?"

"No," said Kameron. "I want to be a police officer when I grow up."

Touche.

"It really means a lot to us because it's a lot of what we like to do especially flying the jets, smiles on kids’ faces, I mean it's up in the skies and it's right here too, so it's pretty awesome," said Matthew Miller one of the Blue Angels.

Normally, the Marines KTVU met today would be manning the ships and giving tours during Fleet Week while the Blue Angels would be performing maintenance for the jets that dazzle crowds with their seemingly impossible formations.

But today, they were happy to just play with the children.

"They're pretty nice," said Levi flashing a smile. He walked out with a stash of colorful photos of jets and ships signed by his new-found friends.

Chalk it up to being a good guesser or having some solid intel, Levi was going to leave a winner.

When asked how many games of Battleship were lost to Levi, Marroquin smiled and said, "Every single one."