thedrifter
10-03-06, 07:26 AM
Camp Lejeune Marines, Sailors Return From Iraq
UPDATED: 8:22 am EDT October 3, 2006
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Stacey Arceneaux didn't have to see her son to get excited about his return from Iraq. Just seeing the gear of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines come off military trucks was enough.
I'm so happy," Arceneaux, mother of Cpl. Harold Arceneaux, said Monday. "I have tears in my eyes just when they took the bags off the truck."
Arceneaux and her husband, Walter, came to Camp Lejeune from Orange, Mass., ignoring their son's advice to stay at home. They did so after his earlier deployment to Fallujah and regretted it.
"We won't listen to him again," Stacey Arceneaux said.
The unit's roughly 900 Marines and sailors returned from their second deployment to Iraq in two years. They spent seven months in Fallujah, returning in August 2005. They redeployed to Ramadi in March.
The unit detained more than 300 insurgents, said Lt. Col. Steve Neary, the battalion commander.
The main mission was to help develop the Iraqi security forces and police in that region, Neary explained. That involved training Iraqis, fighting insurgents and doing civil affairs work such as restoring electricity and building a police station.
A price was paid for that work: 17 Marines from 3/8 were killed and 129 wounded during their seven-month tour.
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Information from: The Daily News, www.jdnews.com
Ellie
UPDATED: 8:22 am EDT October 3, 2006
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Stacey Arceneaux didn't have to see her son to get excited about his return from Iraq. Just seeing the gear of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines come off military trucks was enough.
I'm so happy," Arceneaux, mother of Cpl. Harold Arceneaux, said Monday. "I have tears in my eyes just when they took the bags off the truck."
Arceneaux and her husband, Walter, came to Camp Lejeune from Orange, Mass., ignoring their son's advice to stay at home. They did so after his earlier deployment to Fallujah and regretted it.
"We won't listen to him again," Stacey Arceneaux said.
The unit's roughly 900 Marines and sailors returned from their second deployment to Iraq in two years. They spent seven months in Fallujah, returning in August 2005. They redeployed to Ramadi in March.
The unit detained more than 300 insurgents, said Lt. Col. Steve Neary, the battalion commander.
The main mission was to help develop the Iraqi security forces and police in that region, Neary explained. That involved training Iraqis, fighting insurgents and doing civil affairs work such as restoring electricity and building a police station.
A price was paid for that work: 17 Marines from 3/8 were killed and 129 wounded during their seven-month tour.
___
Information from: The Daily News, www.jdnews.com
Ellie