thedrifter
10-16-05, 05:36 AM
South Florida Marine reservists relieved to be home
Michael Mayo
News Columnist
Careerbuilder
October 15, 2005
They passed around the cell phone before boarding the flight home, eager to talk about the last seven months in Iraq. In a few hours, they would be back in South Florida, first going to their Marine reserve base in Hialeah, then going off with their families to resume their lives.
On Friday afternoon, in the American Airlines terminal of the Raleigh-Durham airport, they took turns speaking pieces of their mind, happy someone on the other end cared enough to listen.
"This seemed a lot longer than last time," said reservist Robert Coupe of Davie.
"I felt like we didn't go to do what we'd been trained to do," said Lance Cpl. William Avila of Miami. "We were like little extra crumbs passed all over the place."
Said Sgt. Ron Abraham of Margate: "We did what we had to do. We got through every day."
Welcome home, AT Scout Company, 8th Tank Battalion.
Their voices sounded tired and flat. All 28 reservists survived, a burnt hand the only injury among them. But they saw death, and they had close calls, and they wonder if anybody besides their families and friends is paying attention to the war that's still going on, still killing and maiming every day.
"To be honest, this tour sucked," said Abraham, 36.
Sgt. Edwin Jean-Francois of Miami said there were a few things he wanted to talk about later, in person. At that point, neither of us realized the media wouldn't be allowed at the reserve center for their arrival.
This is what it's come to. First, the military tried to shield us from the dead as they came home. Now the same is being done with the living.
These Marines have been away since January, in Iraq since March. They spent most of their time pulling guard and checkpoint duty in the heart of Fallujah, a city that was the site of a major United States offensive last year against Sunni insurgents and foreign terrorists.
Coupe said they left Fallujah in mid-September, then spent a couple of weeks patrolling the town of Amariyah farther south. Then came the long trip home: a few days in Kuwait, a week of debriefing at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
His wife, Maria, couldn't wait to see him, so she went to North Carolina last weekend. They hugged long and hard.
Abraham looked forward to seeing his wife, Della, and their two children, Lee Aaron, 12 and Patricia, 11.
"It's nice being back," Abraham said. "No bombs going off in your face. Nobody shooting at you."
For nine reservists, including Abraham and Coupe, this was their second tour in Iraq. They took part in the initial invasion in spring 2003, quickly advancing to Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein's regime.
This time, the mission wasn't so clear.
"Last time we liberated a country," Coupe said. "This time we were stuck in Fallujah. It wasn't nearly as stimulating."
But it was every bit as dangerous.
"During our last three days in the city, we had rockets fired at us that actually hit our building," Coupe said.
Abraham said the South Floridians were fortunate, but other units rotating into the downtown base had deaths. "There was one by sniper, one by IED [improvised explosive device]," Abraham said. "It was something different every day."
The most horrific incident came in late June, the suicide car-bombing of a Marine convoy that killed six and wounded 13, mostly women.
Some South Florida reservists were riding in the second of two open trucks. The first was loaded with female Marines who performed searches on Iraqi women at checkpoints. The car bomber drove into the first truck.
William Avila wasn't there, but the incident nags at him. He said the South Florida scout unit is trained to coordinate, drive and defend convoys, but it wasn't assigned the task. Instead, it was mainly given guard and checkpoint duties.
"It was like having a doctor work as a nurse," said Avila, 25. "I'm not saying we would have stopped that attack, but we might have been better trained to deal with it."
Avila and Abraham said the leaders of the Camp Lejeune-based Regimental Combat Team they were attached to treated them poorly because they were reservists.
While other units rotated in and out of the downtown base every few weeks, the South Florida unit was there for six months.
"We got the worst of the worst," Abraham said.
Coupe said it was hard to gauge overall progress in Iraq ("we were basically living in a bubble,") but he said the Iraqis were on their way to self-sufficiency.
"If the constitution is ratified and Iraqi forces start to do more on their own, I don't think it would be unreasonable to start withdrawing our troops in about a year," he said. "Things are going well, they're just moving slowly."
On Friday, a relieved Coupe could finally focus on simpler matters. He said he looked forward to a "nice relaxing meal" with his wife and in-laws.
Anywhere special?
"Anywhere with mixed drinks," he said.
Michael Mayo can be reached at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.
Ellie
Michael Mayo
News Columnist
Careerbuilder
October 15, 2005
They passed around the cell phone before boarding the flight home, eager to talk about the last seven months in Iraq. In a few hours, they would be back in South Florida, first going to their Marine reserve base in Hialeah, then going off with their families to resume their lives.
On Friday afternoon, in the American Airlines terminal of the Raleigh-Durham airport, they took turns speaking pieces of their mind, happy someone on the other end cared enough to listen.
"This seemed a lot longer than last time," said reservist Robert Coupe of Davie.
"I felt like we didn't go to do what we'd been trained to do," said Lance Cpl. William Avila of Miami. "We were like little extra crumbs passed all over the place."
Said Sgt. Ron Abraham of Margate: "We did what we had to do. We got through every day."
Welcome home, AT Scout Company, 8th Tank Battalion.
Their voices sounded tired and flat. All 28 reservists survived, a burnt hand the only injury among them. But they saw death, and they had close calls, and they wonder if anybody besides their families and friends is paying attention to the war that's still going on, still killing and maiming every day.
"To be honest, this tour sucked," said Abraham, 36.
Sgt. Edwin Jean-Francois of Miami said there were a few things he wanted to talk about later, in person. At that point, neither of us realized the media wouldn't be allowed at the reserve center for their arrival.
This is what it's come to. First, the military tried to shield us from the dead as they came home. Now the same is being done with the living.
These Marines have been away since January, in Iraq since March. They spent most of their time pulling guard and checkpoint duty in the heart of Fallujah, a city that was the site of a major United States offensive last year against Sunni insurgents and foreign terrorists.
Coupe said they left Fallujah in mid-September, then spent a couple of weeks patrolling the town of Amariyah farther south. Then came the long trip home: a few days in Kuwait, a week of debriefing at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
His wife, Maria, couldn't wait to see him, so she went to North Carolina last weekend. They hugged long and hard.
Abraham looked forward to seeing his wife, Della, and their two children, Lee Aaron, 12 and Patricia, 11.
"It's nice being back," Abraham said. "No bombs going off in your face. Nobody shooting at you."
For nine reservists, including Abraham and Coupe, this was their second tour in Iraq. They took part in the initial invasion in spring 2003, quickly advancing to Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein's regime.
This time, the mission wasn't so clear.
"Last time we liberated a country," Coupe said. "This time we were stuck in Fallujah. It wasn't nearly as stimulating."
But it was every bit as dangerous.
"During our last three days in the city, we had rockets fired at us that actually hit our building," Coupe said.
Abraham said the South Floridians were fortunate, but other units rotating into the downtown base had deaths. "There was one by sniper, one by IED [improvised explosive device]," Abraham said. "It was something different every day."
The most horrific incident came in late June, the suicide car-bombing of a Marine convoy that killed six and wounded 13, mostly women.
Some South Florida reservists were riding in the second of two open trucks. The first was loaded with female Marines who performed searches on Iraqi women at checkpoints. The car bomber drove into the first truck.
William Avila wasn't there, but the incident nags at him. He said the South Florida scout unit is trained to coordinate, drive and defend convoys, but it wasn't assigned the task. Instead, it was mainly given guard and checkpoint duties.
"It was like having a doctor work as a nurse," said Avila, 25. "I'm not saying we would have stopped that attack, but we might have been better trained to deal with it."
Avila and Abraham said the leaders of the Camp Lejeune-based Regimental Combat Team they were attached to treated them poorly because they were reservists.
While other units rotated in and out of the downtown base every few weeks, the South Florida unit was there for six months.
"We got the worst of the worst," Abraham said.
Coupe said it was hard to gauge overall progress in Iraq ("we were basically living in a bubble,") but he said the Iraqis were on their way to self-sufficiency.
"If the constitution is ratified and Iraqi forces start to do more on their own, I don't think it would be unreasonable to start withdrawing our troops in about a year," he said. "Things are going well, they're just moving slowly."
On Friday, a relieved Coupe could finally focus on simpler matters. He said he looked forward to a "nice relaxing meal" with his wife and in-laws.
Anywhere special?
"Anywhere with mixed drinks," he said.
Michael Mayo can be reached at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.
Ellie