thedrifter
08-25-05, 07:43 PM
Marine's journal from Iraq is humorous and harrowing [just pull out - that's a loss for everybody]
NJ Media ^ | 8-25-05 | MAKEBA SCOTT HUNTER
You know it's their house before you get there. The big yellow ribbon tied around the old pine tree marks the spot - home of Joe and Joan Crowley, retired parents of five: a steel industry manager, an insurance worker, a high school teacher, a graphics consultant - and a Marine, in Iraq.
As any parent can sympathize, the Crowleys' position is unenviable. The wait, the worry, the news, the silence - all take a cruel and unsettling toll.
"It's an uneasy feeling, you have no control," said Joe, 69. "There's also a mental fatigue involved with just thinking and worrying day in and day out. The worst part is when you don't have communication."
To cope, Joe, a deacon at Our Lady of Consolation Roman Catholic Church in Wayne, says the rosary every morning that his youngest, Tim, a 39-year-old lieutenant colonel, is away from home. He also watches news reports throughout the day, every day, for any information about areas where Tim may be stationed.
Joan, 67, who Joe says, "is aging" since Tim's deployment in May, has involved herself in a myriad of activities to help keep her mind off the dangers she knows her son faces daily. So far, she's sent 17 care packages to Iraq. They are not just for Tim, but filled with items for the other soldiers and Iraqi children, as well.
"It's always on my mind," she said, adding that she's constantly on the lookout for sales items, like breakfast bars for the soldiers and matchbox cars for the kids.
Together, they try to make the two-hour drive to Clarks Summit, Pa., to visit Tim's wife, Carolyn, and their grandsons, Timmy, 11, and Michael, 3, more often. They smile, they pray, they perform community service and they lean on their children, friends and neighbors when they need to.
Ironically, what gives the couple the most comfort in these uncomfortable times is editing and distributing Tim's journal entries from Iraq, which he sends home regularly under the title Crowley's Chronicles. They send the "Chronicles" to friends, family, veterans groups - anyone interested in seeing things in Iraq from a soldier's perspective. As per new military rules, the dispatches are cleared by Crowley's superior officers.
"I didn't know he could write until I began reading the Chronicles," said Joan, who edits them. "I really don't do much, just add a comma here and there."
Still, between sending out both an electronic version and a hard copy for those without Internet access; uploading photos; and general computer troubleshooting, Joan has spent "hours upon hours" and sometimes days editing each of the six Crowley's Chronicles Tim has written since the end of May.
Sometimes his stories are uplifting, such as when he tells of the response the troops get from the children in Iraq: "The kids love us, they like to watch us in action, they respect our strength as individuals as well as the strength America represents."
Or funny, such as his trip to a non-English-speaking Turkish barber who burned the hair off his ears with a flaming Q-tip: "For those of you who have not experienced being hit with a burning torch a dozen times in each ear, let me tell you - you are quite lucky."
Other times, the stories are scary: "This morning around 0530 I was rattled awake by four 60 mm mortar rounds impacting approximately 300 yards from my room. ... What a great start to Father's Day."
And sometimes, many times, the experiences Tim tells of in Iraq are flat-out devastating, such as this scene from a June 23 memorial held for six slain Marines:
"This was a horrific week for 1st Battalion 5th marines (1/5); this was their second group memorial in two days. I do not believe there is anything more eerie and emotional than a Marine memorial service. With standing room only, it starts out with bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, the chaplain speaks, the Commanding Officer talks, followed by a number of young Marines and Sailors who were the fallen's best friends. There wasn't a dry eye in the service and most of them are hard combat veterans on their third tour at the age of 20 and 21."
Joan says reading the Chronicles helps reassure her and allows her to feel closer to Tim, but at times, because of the content, they have the opposite effect.
"I couldn't edit the fourth edition," Joan said, clasping her tiny hands together at her dining room table. "I had to put it down. It was too hard." In the fourth edition Tim tells, in unsentimental, matter-of-fact, soldier-like terms, of his patrol coming under attack by a suicide bomber.
"You can see the progression in the 'Chronicles' from when he got over there," Joe said. "It was almost like when he started it, it was like a tourism kind of thing. He was moving around and explaining what was happening in different places. He lost his bag, there was more humor.
"And then it evolved into more serious stuff. There was an evolution in there that happened after a couple of weeks. He doesn't really express himself emotionally, so when he says it in print it has a strong effect," said Joe. "It's going to help him when he comes back. It's going to keep him more mentally healthy than I think he would be if he didn't write it."
Tim Crowley is scheduled to return to the States in December. In the meantime, his parents plan to continue supporting him and his comrades overseas every way they can. For despite whatever feelings they have (and they were reluctant to say) about the causes of the war, the length of the war, the woman in Texas who's protesting the war - they are 100 percent behind the troops and the mission now that it's under way.
"We can't abandon it now; we have to bring it to completion," said Joan. "If we were to just pull out - that's a loss for everybody and it takes away the meaning of those who sacrificed their lives to bring something better for Iraq. We went in there and now we've got a mess. We've got to do something to bring it to conclusion."
"Certainly, as a deacon, as a Christian, I want peace, but I feel totally comfortable in supporting our troops' efforts in Iraq against the insurgency," Joe said.
Besides, it will keep them busy until Christmas when, hopefully, the Crowley family will receive the best gift of all: Tim, home, in the flesh, safe and sound.
Ellie
NJ Media ^ | 8-25-05 | MAKEBA SCOTT HUNTER
You know it's their house before you get there. The big yellow ribbon tied around the old pine tree marks the spot - home of Joe and Joan Crowley, retired parents of five: a steel industry manager, an insurance worker, a high school teacher, a graphics consultant - and a Marine, in Iraq.
As any parent can sympathize, the Crowleys' position is unenviable. The wait, the worry, the news, the silence - all take a cruel and unsettling toll.
"It's an uneasy feeling, you have no control," said Joe, 69. "There's also a mental fatigue involved with just thinking and worrying day in and day out. The worst part is when you don't have communication."
To cope, Joe, a deacon at Our Lady of Consolation Roman Catholic Church in Wayne, says the rosary every morning that his youngest, Tim, a 39-year-old lieutenant colonel, is away from home. He also watches news reports throughout the day, every day, for any information about areas where Tim may be stationed.
Joan, 67, who Joe says, "is aging" since Tim's deployment in May, has involved herself in a myriad of activities to help keep her mind off the dangers she knows her son faces daily. So far, she's sent 17 care packages to Iraq. They are not just for Tim, but filled with items for the other soldiers and Iraqi children, as well.
"It's always on my mind," she said, adding that she's constantly on the lookout for sales items, like breakfast bars for the soldiers and matchbox cars for the kids.
Together, they try to make the two-hour drive to Clarks Summit, Pa., to visit Tim's wife, Carolyn, and their grandsons, Timmy, 11, and Michael, 3, more often. They smile, they pray, they perform community service and they lean on their children, friends and neighbors when they need to.
Ironically, what gives the couple the most comfort in these uncomfortable times is editing and distributing Tim's journal entries from Iraq, which he sends home regularly under the title Crowley's Chronicles. They send the "Chronicles" to friends, family, veterans groups - anyone interested in seeing things in Iraq from a soldier's perspective. As per new military rules, the dispatches are cleared by Crowley's superior officers.
"I didn't know he could write until I began reading the Chronicles," said Joan, who edits them. "I really don't do much, just add a comma here and there."
Still, between sending out both an electronic version and a hard copy for those without Internet access; uploading photos; and general computer troubleshooting, Joan has spent "hours upon hours" and sometimes days editing each of the six Crowley's Chronicles Tim has written since the end of May.
Sometimes his stories are uplifting, such as when he tells of the response the troops get from the children in Iraq: "The kids love us, they like to watch us in action, they respect our strength as individuals as well as the strength America represents."
Or funny, such as his trip to a non-English-speaking Turkish barber who burned the hair off his ears with a flaming Q-tip: "For those of you who have not experienced being hit with a burning torch a dozen times in each ear, let me tell you - you are quite lucky."
Other times, the stories are scary: "This morning around 0530 I was rattled awake by four 60 mm mortar rounds impacting approximately 300 yards from my room. ... What a great start to Father's Day."
And sometimes, many times, the experiences Tim tells of in Iraq are flat-out devastating, such as this scene from a June 23 memorial held for six slain Marines:
"This was a horrific week for 1st Battalion 5th marines (1/5); this was their second group memorial in two days. I do not believe there is anything more eerie and emotional than a Marine memorial service. With standing room only, it starts out with bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, the chaplain speaks, the Commanding Officer talks, followed by a number of young Marines and Sailors who were the fallen's best friends. There wasn't a dry eye in the service and most of them are hard combat veterans on their third tour at the age of 20 and 21."
Joan says reading the Chronicles helps reassure her and allows her to feel closer to Tim, but at times, because of the content, they have the opposite effect.
"I couldn't edit the fourth edition," Joan said, clasping her tiny hands together at her dining room table. "I had to put it down. It was too hard." In the fourth edition Tim tells, in unsentimental, matter-of-fact, soldier-like terms, of his patrol coming under attack by a suicide bomber.
"You can see the progression in the 'Chronicles' from when he got over there," Joe said. "It was almost like when he started it, it was like a tourism kind of thing. He was moving around and explaining what was happening in different places. He lost his bag, there was more humor.
"And then it evolved into more serious stuff. There was an evolution in there that happened after a couple of weeks. He doesn't really express himself emotionally, so when he says it in print it has a strong effect," said Joe. "It's going to help him when he comes back. It's going to keep him more mentally healthy than I think he would be if he didn't write it."
Tim Crowley is scheduled to return to the States in December. In the meantime, his parents plan to continue supporting him and his comrades overseas every way they can. For despite whatever feelings they have (and they were reluctant to say) about the causes of the war, the length of the war, the woman in Texas who's protesting the war - they are 100 percent behind the troops and the mission now that it's under way.
"We can't abandon it now; we have to bring it to completion," said Joan. "If we were to just pull out - that's a loss for everybody and it takes away the meaning of those who sacrificed their lives to bring something better for Iraq. We went in there and now we've got a mess. We've got to do something to bring it to conclusion."
"Certainly, as a deacon, as a Christian, I want peace, but I feel totally comfortable in supporting our troops' efforts in Iraq against the insurgency," Joe said.
Besides, it will keep them busy until Christmas when, hopefully, the Crowley family will receive the best gift of all: Tim, home, in the flesh, safe and sound.
Ellie