With his warm chocolate-brown eyes, dark close-cropped hair and friendly smile, Lt. Brody "Taco" Prieto looks like a poster model of a Navy fighter pilot.
Looks, however, can be deceiving. The 1995 Naval Academy graduate was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.
There's very little traditional medicine can do to combat it, so Lt. Prieto is pursuing a variety of other treatments, some of which are not covered by the Navy health plan.
And with a wife, Theresa Coolbaugh Prieto, two daughters, Kaley, 4, and Skyler, 3, and a baby due in January, money to pay for acupuncture and shock treatments in Sarasota, Fla., is very tight.
That's where American Legion Post 226 in Mayo came in.
Her mother's cousin, Diane Francisco of Mayo, approached the post's commander, Charlie Cowell, and the auxiliary unit's president, Becky Oliver, about the Prietos' situation. Without hesitation, the two offered to help.
They'd already been planning a fund-raiser with a less serious theme -- the Great Mayo Pig Cook-Off.
On Saturday over 400 people gathered at the post home to raise $11,000 for the family at the roast.
The event began as a grudge match between Post members Rick Fink and Ed Mock, who had been bickering over whose method of cooking a whole pig was superior.
Mr. Mock of Mayo, who was assisted by Dave Kauffman of Mayo, used a Rube Goldberg-esque type of rotisserie.
The spit was powered by a washing machine engine and a series of reduction boxes which turned the pig on its 2-inch boat shank every 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
A counterweight of a 2-foot section of a telephone pole attached to a pulley lifted the lid of the 500-gallon oil tank. This contraption was loaded on a boat trailer.
"It's very portable," he said.
He and Mr. Kauffman had begun their grilling at 9:30 Friday night and remained on duty all night long.
Nearby, Mr. Fink of Riva was busy at his own enormous grill. He, too, was up all night cooking a 150-pound pig.
On a separate grill, his crew tended to 400 pieces of chicken.
"We're glad to be doing this for Diane's relative," said Mr. Fink.
The third cook team was headed by Bobby Belt of Mayo.
He and his son, Randy, 9, and a crew were busy at two grills cooking two pigs in addition to beef.
Ernie Winters was the coordinator of judging for the cookoff. Six guests were randomly selected to do the honors.
Mr. Belt was declared the winner, but the cooks are already looking forward to a rematch next year.
Besides the barbecue there was a dance from 4 to 8 p.m., where the Prietos' little girls joined in.
Theresa and Lt. Prieto, who live in Virginia Beach, were overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness and generosity.
"I don't even know them," said Lt. Prieto. "You never realize that in a time of need how people will come together to help."
Lt. Prieto, a native of El Paso, Texas, met his future wife while he was at the Naval Academy.
A native of Annapolis and a student at Anne Arundel Community College in 1990 and 1991, she was introduced to Lt. Prieto through a mutual friend.
"She wouldn't date me while I was a midshipman," Lt. Prieto laughed. But when he graduated with his degree in engineering she did go out with him. They wed in 1997.
He realized something was wrong shortly after he returned home in February from a six-month tour aboard the USS Enterprise.
He had been heading home last September when the horrors of Sept. 11 occurred. The ship turned around and Lt. Prieto was among the first to fly over Afghanistan.
Once home, he started slurring his speech. In May he received the ALS diagnosis.
Two weekends ago he ran in a half marathon, just to prove he could do it.
"Brody's always fought for everything he ever got. He's prepared to fight now, and so is his family," said Ms. Francisco.