The new year is going to start off with a bang for one former Marine from Butler.

That is, if Andrew Codispot’s girlfriend will consent to his surprise televised wedding proposal from Times Square in New York City just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Codispot and Shicar Raypush are flying to New York today. She thinks they’re going on a short vacation.

But Codispot, through the help of the Wounded Warrior Project and FOX News, plans to pop the question to Raypush in front of a few million viewers close to the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Codispot, the son of Ted and Tammy Codispot of Butler, enlisted in the Marines after his graduation from Butler High School in 2008.

“I was deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan, from 2010 to 2011. As a combat infantry Marine, we were pretty much on the front lines,” said Codispot, 26.

“We saw fighting. We did patrols, security, clearing missions, transportation missions. We were the tip of the spear,” he said.

After being honorably discharged in 2014, Codispot came back to Butler and eventually got a job in food service at VA Butler Healthcare.

Two years ago, he said, he met Raypush, 23, a nurse’s aide at Butler Memorial Hospital, through mutual friends.

“We just kind of hit it off from there,” he said.

“She’s a very sweet girl, a very, very nice girl. I think they make a great couple,” said Tammy Codispot.

Codispot and Raypush have talked marriage in the past, but it was the intervention of a fellow ex-Marine working with the Wounded Warrior Project that started Codispot down the road to Times Square.

Codispot calls Doug Moore of the Wounded Warrior Project in Chicago a brother in arms.

“I’ve known him since 2008 as soon as I got out of basic. He was one of the first guys I met. I kind of attached myself to him,” said Codispot.

“He’s been with me since day one. He’s more than a best friend, he is a brother to me,” he added.

Moore, the alumni manager of the Wounded Warrior Project’s Chicago office served with Codispot in Afghanistan and called the Butler native “a fantastic Marine, very motivated, very knowledgeable.”

“The Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit organization that serves post-9-11 veterans who have suffered injury, illness or wounds concurrent with their service,” said Moore.

“FOX News reached out to us for certain individuals fitting the criteria,” said Moore, adding the cable news channel has arranged New Year’s Eve wedding proposals in the past.

Codispot said when Moore posted inquiries on social media looking for ex-servicemen to apply for the Times Square experience, he filled out an application then found out two weeks later he had been accepted.

It’s been hard keeping the true nature of the trip to the Big Apple a secret from Shicar, he said.

“Actually, she was a little aware of the whole New York trip,” he said. “I just left out the engagement part of the whole thing.”

Saturday, he said the jig will be up when they arrive at the FOX News studios in New York.

“I’ve watched videos from years before, the proposal happens just before midnight in the studio,” he said.

The plan calls Codispot to pop the question to Raypush just before midnight during the live broadcast “All-American New Year.” The New Year’s Eve special averaged nearly 1.9 million in total viewers, according to Nielsen Research.

While the ex-Marine said he’s not nervous now that a date and time for his proposal is set, “when presented with the situation, I am sure the butterflies might start flying.”

“She’s going to be, not shocked, but very excited and hopefully she will say yes,” he said.

“He’s going to make her one happy lady,” said Moore.

“I think she’s going to be very happy. I know she loves Andrew, and she’s going to be very happy,” said Tammy Codispot.

While the wedding has obviously not be set yet, Codispot said they would want to have a summer wedding.

“I plan to be in charge of flowers,” said Tammy Codispot. “I still am a floral designer,” she said, although presently she’s a PennDOT employee in Butler.

“If you are going to make something memorable, you might as well do it in front of all of America in one of the busiest places at that time with everyone watching FOX watching you,” said Andrew Codispot.

They plan to fly back Sunday.