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thedrifter
05-01-04, 07:51 AM
Marine featured on Time magazine visits home
By HEMA EASLEY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: April 28, 2004)

WHITE PLAINS — Looking out from his guard post into the arid mountains of Afghanistan, Cpl. Patrick Gravenese often thinks of spring flowers, his family, fiancee and high school buddies, and luxuries like hot food, clean clothes and a shower.

"You think about home, but not much because it makes you depressed and mushy," said Gravenese, a Harrison High School alumnus who shot to fame after he was featured on the cover of Time magazine for a story about the war in Afghanistan. "Then you can't focus on the job."

The 23-year-old Marine is back briefly to visit his ailing father. Gravenese has been deployed for six months near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding. Gravenese previously served six months in Nasiriyah in Iraq. He spoke about his experiences during an interview Monday night at his fiancee's apartment in White Plains.

The March 8 magazine cover led to celebrations among the approximately 1,000 troops on the U.S. military base — an abandoned Russian post made of dirt and concrete — but only for a day or so. His comrades congratulated him, lined up to have copies of the magazine autographed, but then teased him endlessly, asking him not to forget the the "ordinary guys," Gravenese said.

"They were all excited and happy, but we were all mission-oriented. It was: 'We've got a job to do. We have to go find Osama,' " said Gravenese, a focused go-getter who, in a life-changing decision four years ago, lost 170 pounds so he would be accepted into the Marines.

'There's no Sunday'


While tracking America's most wanted fugitive is a heady task, reality is more mundane. The hunt translates into an average of 18 hours of guard duty on the base, ensuring the vicinity and search routes are free of land mines and other explosives; exhausting patrols in inhospitable terrain; and frequently dehydrated meals.

"We just smoked, joked around and stood post," said Gravenese, who underplays the tough life with colorful language and a shrug. "You're always doing something. There's no stopping, there's no Sunday."

Between missions, patrols, briefings and guard duty, a Marine snatches a meal and some sleep. Gravenese estimates a Marine gets an average of 24 hours of sleep a week.

Gravenese was a 300-pound, 19-year-old with no particular aim in life when he saw a National Geographic documentary called "The Making of a Marine." He was so inspired by the piece that he decided to join the military.

"They just looked at me and laughed," Gravenese said. "They said, 'You can't join the Marines.' "

The rejection spurred Gravenese to a year of diet and hard exercise, at the end of which he weighed 130 pounds. Today, Gravenese is all muscle and weighs 170 pounds at 5 feet 10 inches.

Gravenese joined the Marine Corps two months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The death and destruction he saw on that day, first on television and then in person, increased his resolve to fight for his country, he said.

"I felt like I owed it to America ... to myself, to the people," he said.

'I hope nothing happens'


After training at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Gravenese went on active duty in Iraq in March 2003. His unit, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, rolled into Nasiriyah just a day after the ambush in which Pvt. Jessica Lynch was captured. His unit helped with operations in the area, including her rescue. Gravenese remembers months of urban warfare, gunfights in the streets, and being shot at by rocket and sniper fire.

In November, his unit was sent to Afghanistan, a war the public wasn't focused on because of the fighting in Iraq.

Combat was different in Afghanistan, Gravenese found. There were no street gunbattles. The new enemy was faceless. It set up land mines and explosives that were triggered to explode when American patrols passed through. Mortar and artillery fire rained down from vantage points, and guerrillas stalked the areas to ambush the Americans.

"Every time you go out, you get this feeling, 'I hope nothing happens.' "

One day, it did. One of Gravenese's closet friends in the Marines lost his Adam's apple to a piece of twisted shrapnel from an exploding artillery shell. Another friend's leg was mangled in the explosion.

Not all of his contact with the Afghans was violent. Gravenese once attended the weekly Friday night barbecue hosted by the locals in which they typically roast a kid goat. It was some of the best meat he's had, he said. The region's harsh beauty also provides for a respite from the stress of living in a hostile environment.

The military has changed Gravenese, says his fiancee, Laura Damiano of White Plains, who has known him since he was in high school. He's more relaxed, doesn't get stressed if he's in a traffic jam, has learned to drive slowly and loves to help in the house doing laundry, cooking or cleaning dishes.

"The military has straightened him out. He has mellowed; he doesn't get frustrated," said Damiano, 24, as she stood in her White Plains apartment Monday evening getting a dinner of chicken cutlets, pasta and salad ready. Next to her stood Gravenese, slicing peppers and coating chicken in batter.

Gravenese will go back to his base at the end of next week. His service with the Marines will end in October 2005.

The couple have set a wedding date for April 22, 2006. The long engagement will give Gravenese enough time to look for a job and settle in after he leaves the Marines, Damiano said. With his military background, Gravenese said, he hopes to become a New York state trooper, settle down and raise a family.

"I've always been a Harrison boy. I love this place," he said.

http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/042804/a0128timesoldier.html


Ellie

Osotogary
05-01-04, 10:53 AM
Any word about 2/8 is always appreciated.
Thank you for the post.
Gary(osotogary)
Proud Dad of a U.S.Marine with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.