thedrifter
09-11-06, 09:37 AM
Troops still feel 9/11 effects
September 11,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Five years ago today, smoke drifted up and out from Manhattan Island. Then it happened at the Pentagon.
For all intents and purposes, it floated all the way to Camp Lejeune.
While the haze created by two hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a third into a field in Pennsylvania has dissipated, the dark cloud of the Sept. 11 attacks still hangs over America — and over the heads of those who were sent to war by that national tragedy.
Whether or not Americans agree that Iraq had anything to do with Sept. 11 is a matter of debate — a recent Zogby poll says that 46 percent believe Iraq was connected to 9/11. But there is no debate that the timeline leading to today extends from the destruction at ground zero wrought by al-Qaida terrorists at the direction of Osama bin Laden. That line led the nation into the Global War on Terror, toward Afghanistan and later Iraq.
Five years later, it has led to a parking lot at Camp Lejeune on a rainy September day. Families linger, waiting to send husbands and wives, sons and daughters off to war again. This time, it’s about 900 Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, departing for Iraq’s volatile Al Anbar province. This is the unit’s third combat deployment in five years.
“I can’t describe it,” said Gary Fultz of sending his son, Cpl. James Fultz, to Iraq for the second time. “I’m very proud of my son. He’s my only son. It’s tough. But as he said, it’s just another job for him. He’s wanted to be a Marine since he was 14.”
Thousands of young men and women like Fultz’s son have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, many more than once. They have paid a heavy price in these five years. According to Defense Department casualty reports, 2,983 service members have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 20,846 wounded as of Friday. Eight Defense Department civilians have also died in the two countries.
Fultz is still angry about 9/11, but that emotion is countered by the intense pride he feels in the troops whose lives have been turned upside-down by those attacks.
“It still makes me very angry what those people did to us,” he said. “I look at all these young men going over there. They put Saddam out of power, we are after bin Laden. I’m just for every one of those guys.
“I may not agree with everything being done, but they got the right people doing the job.”
Michelle Powell of Jacksonville is as used to deployments as anyone can be. While her son, Justin Powell, a Navy corpsman deploying with 1/6, is going to Iraq for the first time, her husband, Master Gunnery Sgt. Allen Powell, is a Marine who has been deployed many times.
“It’s a lot more nerve-racking,” she said of sending her son to war. “I’ve asked his father to go with him, but he can’t. My heart left when he went to the Navy, and it’s going to go with him when he goes to Iraq.”
Powell is not surprised that war continues in Iraq and Afghanistan five years after the 9/11 attacks. She attempts to balance the importance of the greater cause with her concern for the fighting men in her family.
“I’m upset that these military men have to go over there,” she said. “I know it’s a job they have to do, but it’s different when it’s your child or husband. But someone has got to help these people. From what my husband has told me, they are doing a lot of good.”
It was extremely difficult for Tammy Smith to watch her son, Lance Cpl. Brandon Smith, deploy to Iraq a second time. She holds tightly to hope that everything will be OK.
“It’s been one of the hardest things to send him to war again,” Smith said in an e-mail. “But he came home safe once, and I have faith he will again.”
Despite the pain and worry caused by deployments and war, she said her family has always supported her son’s dream of being a Marine, one that grew stronger after 9/11.
“He has wanted to be a Marine since he was 11 years old,” Smith said. “We thought he would grow out of it, that it was just a phase, but we always supported that dream of his and still do. After 9/11 it only intensified his calling to be a Marine.
“While we suffer different pains, his more physical than ours, obviously, we have a mutual understanding of the importance of what he does. He passes his days defending us, and I pass the days waiting for the phone to ring.”
It’s the waiting that’s the hardest part, said Fultz.
“I wish to hell I could go with them,” he said. “As a parent of one of these guys, if they took a 50-something-year-old, I’d be there.”
Contact Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 229.
Ellie
September 11,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Five years ago today, smoke drifted up and out from Manhattan Island. Then it happened at the Pentagon.
For all intents and purposes, it floated all the way to Camp Lejeune.
While the haze created by two hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a third into a field in Pennsylvania has dissipated, the dark cloud of the Sept. 11 attacks still hangs over America — and over the heads of those who were sent to war by that national tragedy.
Whether or not Americans agree that Iraq had anything to do with Sept. 11 is a matter of debate — a recent Zogby poll says that 46 percent believe Iraq was connected to 9/11. But there is no debate that the timeline leading to today extends from the destruction at ground zero wrought by al-Qaida terrorists at the direction of Osama bin Laden. That line led the nation into the Global War on Terror, toward Afghanistan and later Iraq.
Five years later, it has led to a parking lot at Camp Lejeune on a rainy September day. Families linger, waiting to send husbands and wives, sons and daughters off to war again. This time, it’s about 900 Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, departing for Iraq’s volatile Al Anbar province. This is the unit’s third combat deployment in five years.
“I can’t describe it,” said Gary Fultz of sending his son, Cpl. James Fultz, to Iraq for the second time. “I’m very proud of my son. He’s my only son. It’s tough. But as he said, it’s just another job for him. He’s wanted to be a Marine since he was 14.”
Thousands of young men and women like Fultz’s son have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, many more than once. They have paid a heavy price in these five years. According to Defense Department casualty reports, 2,983 service members have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 20,846 wounded as of Friday. Eight Defense Department civilians have also died in the two countries.
Fultz is still angry about 9/11, but that emotion is countered by the intense pride he feels in the troops whose lives have been turned upside-down by those attacks.
“It still makes me very angry what those people did to us,” he said. “I look at all these young men going over there. They put Saddam out of power, we are after bin Laden. I’m just for every one of those guys.
“I may not agree with everything being done, but they got the right people doing the job.”
Michelle Powell of Jacksonville is as used to deployments as anyone can be. While her son, Justin Powell, a Navy corpsman deploying with 1/6, is going to Iraq for the first time, her husband, Master Gunnery Sgt. Allen Powell, is a Marine who has been deployed many times.
“It’s a lot more nerve-racking,” she said of sending her son to war. “I’ve asked his father to go with him, but he can’t. My heart left when he went to the Navy, and it’s going to go with him when he goes to Iraq.”
Powell is not surprised that war continues in Iraq and Afghanistan five years after the 9/11 attacks. She attempts to balance the importance of the greater cause with her concern for the fighting men in her family.
“I’m upset that these military men have to go over there,” she said. “I know it’s a job they have to do, but it’s different when it’s your child or husband. But someone has got to help these people. From what my husband has told me, they are doing a lot of good.”
It was extremely difficult for Tammy Smith to watch her son, Lance Cpl. Brandon Smith, deploy to Iraq a second time. She holds tightly to hope that everything will be OK.
“It’s been one of the hardest things to send him to war again,” Smith said in an e-mail. “But he came home safe once, and I have faith he will again.”
Despite the pain and worry caused by deployments and war, she said her family has always supported her son’s dream of being a Marine, one that grew stronger after 9/11.
“He has wanted to be a Marine since he was 11 years old,” Smith said. “We thought he would grow out of it, that it was just a phase, but we always supported that dream of his and still do. After 9/11 it only intensified his calling to be a Marine.
“While we suffer different pains, his more physical than ours, obviously, we have a mutual understanding of the importance of what he does. He passes his days defending us, and I pass the days waiting for the phone to ring.”
It’s the waiting that’s the hardest part, said Fultz.
“I wish to hell I could go with them,” he said. “As a parent of one of these guys, if they took a 50-something-year-old, I’d be there.”
Contact Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 229.
Ellie