Rain can’t spoil Marine homecoming

[thedrifter]

Posted on Fri, Aug. 25, 2006
Rain can’t spoil Marine homecoming
Soldiers, including mom eager to see young daughter, return from Iraq
By LORI YOUNT
lyoung@beaufortgazette.com

When a thunderstorm rolled in to drench the homecoming at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort on Thursday afternoon, Staff Sgt. Josue Ayala said he was glad his recruits on Parris Island were getting a reprieve from the heat during some of the most grueling hours of their final test before becoming Marines — the Crucible.

The senior drill instructor left his recruits during this crucial ending of their training because his wife, Staff Sgt. Yolanda Ayala, along with about 165 other Marines and sailors with Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 533 and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31, was arriving home from a seven-month deployment in Camp Al Asad, Iraq.

“I understand what females go through” when their husbands are away, said Josue Ayala, who took care of their 4-year-old daughter, Tatiana, with the help of relatives. “I have a little more appreciation.”

Both Josue and Yolanda Ayala have been in the Marine Corps for 10 years, and though this is Yolanda Ayala’s first tour in the Middle East, Josue Ayala was deployed to Kuwait in 2003 at the start of the war.

“I understand what she’s going through as a Marine, but it’s hard to understand as a female what she’s going through,” in leaving her young daughter, Josue Ayala said.

When Yolanda Ayala finally waded through the late afternoon downpour into the hangar with a barefoot, straggly haired Tatiana, it seemed the mother wasn’t ever going to release her daughter.

“It’s hard right now,” Yolanda Ayala said, her eyes teary. “I don’t want to let her go at all.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Reveling in a rainy reunion
Marine squadrons return to families strained by split
Published Friday August 25 2006
By LORI YOUNT
The Beaufort Gazette

When a thunderstorm rolled in to drench the homecoming at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort on Thursday afternoon, Staff Sgt. Josue Ayala said he was glad his recruits on Parris Island were getting a reprieve from the heat during some of the most grueling hours of their final test before becoming Marines -- the Crucible.

The senior drill instructor left his recruits during this crucial ending of their training because his wife, Staff Sgt. Yolanda Ayala, along with about 165 other Marines and sailors with Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 533 and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31, was arriving home from a seven-month deployment in Camp Al Asad, Iraq.

"I understand what females go through" when their husbands are away, said Josue Ayala, who took care of their 4-year-old daughter, Tatiana, with the help of relatives. "I have a little more appreciation."

Both Josue and Yolanda Ayala have been in the Marine Corps for 10 years, and though this is Yolanda Ayala's first tour in the Middle East, Josue Ayala was deployed to Kuwait in 2003 at the start of the war.

"I understand what she's going through as a Marine, but it's hard to understand as a female what she's going through," in leaving her young daughter, Josue Ayala said.

When Yolanda Ayala finally waded through the late afternoon downpour into the hangar with a barefoot, straggly-haired Tatiana, it seemed the mother wasn't ever going to release her daughter.

"It's hard right now," Yolanda Ayala said, her eyes teary and largely unaware of her husband, mother and the bouquet of roses and homemade signs they brought her. "I don't want to let her go at all."

Even at the end of a the long deployment, Yolanda Ayala said she planned to remain a Marine much longer despite stepped-up deployment schedules because of the war.

"Hopefully they're going to work with me," she said. "But if it's time for me to go, I'll go. I have my family support. ... Hopefully they'll not send us both together."

Deployments test all marriages, but especially those where both are Marines. In the end, Josue Ayala said he thinks they make relationships stronger, as it did after his deployment to Kuwait.

"It tests trust," he said.

Jenae Esparza knows this all too well. Her husband, Lance Cpl. Albert Esparza, returned Thursday with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31.

"He stresses me out because he's stressed out because he's out there," said Jenae Esparza, who left the Marines in June after two years. "A lot of these wives are tempted."

Jenae Esparza said she didn't want her 15-month marriage to become another wartime statistic. According to a Department of Defense study, female Marines have among the highest rates of divorce in the military.

She said she left the Corps because it wasn't for her, and though her husband has three years left in his enlistment and loves his job as radar technician, she hopes he doesn't remain a Marine too much longer.

"I hope he gets out as soon as he can so we can live a normal life," Jenae Esparza said.

However, she said she's scared with recent news reports of thousands of Marines being involuntarily called into active-duty status because she's not sure if it'll affect her.

"I read that the other day and thought, my God, I hope they don't call me," she said.

Her husband doesn't seem so deterred after his first deployment to Iraq.

"We made our first one," Albert Esparza said, standing wet-cheek-to-wet-cheek with his wife. "I think we can do it again." She rolled her eyes.

However, Cathryn Miller is a deployment veteran. Though her husband, Gunnery Sgt. David Miller, is returning from his first deployment in Iraq, it's just one of many in his 17-year career in the Marine Corps. She said she doesn't mind if he tries to make it 20 and will take any other deployments in stride, as she's sure her husband will.

"Once a Marine, always a Marine," Cathryn Miller said. "They'll go

with a smile. That's the consensus we found. It's just how it is."

Today about 150 Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 273 are set to leave the air station for a seven-month deployment to Camp Al Asad, Iraq, the first time the entire squadron has deployed since 2004, according to a base press release.

Ellie