thedrifter
12-25-05, 09:08 AM
W. Roxbury Marine gets call from Bush
By Chase Davis, Globe Correspondent | December 25, 2005
The phone rang late on Christmas Eve, in the Spartan recreation room of a Marine base in Okinawa, Japan.
On one end was West Roxbury native and Marine Lance Corporal Steven Meranda, 18 months into a two-year deployment overseas.
On the other, spending the holidays at Camp David, Md., was President Bush, in the middle of his traditional holiday phone calls to members of the armed forces stationed overseas.
''He didn't want to hold up the phone, so he didn't get into details," Steven Meranda's mother, Eileen Meranda, said after speaking with her son. ''[Bush] just spoke and said Merry Christmas, I think. I'm not sure what else."
Steven Meranda, 22, has spent 18 months in Okinawa, where he works an administrative job processing orders for other Marines. He was promoted to lance corporal earlier this month and received word of the presidential phone call earlier this week.
Eileen Meranda said her confident, outgoing son is not usually the nervous type, but he seemed excited to be receiving a call from his commander-in-chief.
Just before 9 a.m. yesterday in Boston, it was late on Christmas Eve in Okinawa, Steven Meranda took the call on a public phone, where he spoke with Bush briefly before the call was routed by the White House to his parents in West Roxbury.
Concerned that he was tying up a phone other Marines could use to call home, Steven Meranda spoke with his mother for about a minute before rushing away.
''I think he was just a little nervous," Eileen Meranda said. ''Nervous and excited."
According to the White House, recipients of Bush's Christmas calls are selected by each branch of the military and are usually chosen based on merit. Steven Meranda's promotion earlier this month ''probably had something to do with it," White House spokesman Allen Abney said.
Bush called nine members of the military for this holiday, including at least one from each branch and several in Iraq and Afghanistan, Abney said. Conversations with the president often last several minutes.
''[Bush] takes the opportunity to wish them merry Christmas. I'm sure he asks how their families are and thanks them for their service," Abney said.
Eileen Meranda said she hopes to hear more about the conversation when she talks to her son again. His tour is finished in July, and she said she hopes to see him home soon after. ''We're very proud, he's a great kid," she said.
Ellie
By Chase Davis, Globe Correspondent | December 25, 2005
The phone rang late on Christmas Eve, in the Spartan recreation room of a Marine base in Okinawa, Japan.
On one end was West Roxbury native and Marine Lance Corporal Steven Meranda, 18 months into a two-year deployment overseas.
On the other, spending the holidays at Camp David, Md., was President Bush, in the middle of his traditional holiday phone calls to members of the armed forces stationed overseas.
''He didn't want to hold up the phone, so he didn't get into details," Steven Meranda's mother, Eileen Meranda, said after speaking with her son. ''[Bush] just spoke and said Merry Christmas, I think. I'm not sure what else."
Steven Meranda, 22, has spent 18 months in Okinawa, where he works an administrative job processing orders for other Marines. He was promoted to lance corporal earlier this month and received word of the presidential phone call earlier this week.
Eileen Meranda said her confident, outgoing son is not usually the nervous type, but he seemed excited to be receiving a call from his commander-in-chief.
Just before 9 a.m. yesterday in Boston, it was late on Christmas Eve in Okinawa, Steven Meranda took the call on a public phone, where he spoke with Bush briefly before the call was routed by the White House to his parents in West Roxbury.
Concerned that he was tying up a phone other Marines could use to call home, Steven Meranda spoke with his mother for about a minute before rushing away.
''I think he was just a little nervous," Eileen Meranda said. ''Nervous and excited."
According to the White House, recipients of Bush's Christmas calls are selected by each branch of the military and are usually chosen based on merit. Steven Meranda's promotion earlier this month ''probably had something to do with it," White House spokesman Allen Abney said.
Bush called nine members of the military for this holiday, including at least one from each branch and several in Iraq and Afghanistan, Abney said. Conversations with the president often last several minutes.
''[Bush] takes the opportunity to wish them merry Christmas. I'm sure he asks how their families are and thanks them for their service," Abney said.
Eileen Meranda said she hopes to hear more about the conversation when she talks to her son again. His tour is finished in July, and she said she hopes to see him home soon after. ''We're very proud, he's a great kid," she said.
Ellie