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thedrifter
12-04-06, 06:52 AM
Home for the holidays
December 04,2006
PATRICIA SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Four-year-old Hayleigh Velgersdyk squealed as she ran to jump into her father’s arms Sunday outside the Area 1 Gym at Camp Lejeune.

It was something she had missed these past few months while her dad was deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, her mother, Emily Velgersdyk said.

Emily Velgersdyk would now allow such “rough play,” and there was a reason for that.

After Hayleigh proudly told her father that she had cleaned her room, she then introduced her new little brother, Caiden.

“How’s it going mister?” Petty Officer Jared Velgersdyk tenderly asked as he held his 23-day-old son for the first time.

“I wish I would have been there for the birth,” Velgersdyk said, as Caiden stared, wide-eyed, into his father’s face.

Asli Wright didn’t squeal, but she certainly ran into the arms of her husband, Staff Sgt. John Wright, and covered him with hugs and kisses.

It was the first deployment the couple, wed 1½ years ago, has gone through since their marriage.

“I’m so excited; I’m so happy,” Asli Wright said.

They were among numerous families reunited Sunday as more than 1,000 Camp Lejeune Marines arrived home from a six-month deployment to the Middle East that was highlighted by the evacuation of some 15,000 U.S. citizens from war-torn Lebanon.

It was not what the MEU anticipated when it left the United States on June 8.

While the Marines had spent the previous six months preparing for a number of possible missions, they expected to return in full to Iraq, where many of them had served in 2004.

“Nobody expected to go to Lebanon, that was the furthest thing from our minds,” said Col. Ron Johnson, the MEU commander.

But when fighting broke out July 12 between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah, the MEU cut short training exercises in Jordan and raced to Lebanon.

“We kind of knew that we were the only ones available to do that and that’s kind of our specialty — to evacuate citizens from a war zone,” Johnson said.

The modern, urbanized environment of Beirut made the mission different from fighting in remote areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnson said.

“When you have a war going on it’s kind of surreal,” Johnson said.

The Marines could see how scared the people were, especially the children, Johnson said. So many of those evacuated were children of Lebanese-Americans, visiting their grandparents for the summer, he said.

When help arrived, the children’s fears turned to smiles, Johnson said.

“Although it’s an old expression, once the Marines show up, situation’s well in hand,” he said.

The Marines shuttled evacuees on the USS Nashville and USS Whidbey Island to Cyprus, where the U.S. State Department took over.

On the Nashville, the Marines brought out their Gameboys and Nintendos so the children could play, said Sgt. Major Andy Crout.

“They were just like kids; you could see the bombs dropping on the horizon; it was all new to them,” said Capt. Brian Cillessen, who went ashore in Lebanon for 10 days from the USS Iwo Jima.

The Iwo Jima, the largest of the seven-vessel Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, stayed offshore during the evacuations and acted as the base for communications and control planning for the mission, Cillessen said.

“It was kind of like Katrina,” said Cpl. Tyrone Griffin, who went ashore in Lebanon from the Iwo Jima to help a group of 25 leave on the Nashville. “It was tragic to see all the people having to leave the way they did.”

But being able to do something about it gave Griffin a sense of satisfaction.

“It’s always rewarding helping somebody, and to help fellow Americans is always rewarding,” Griffin said.

The MEU also participated in training exercises with Pakistani naval forces, while its AV-8B Harriers flew combat missions in Afghanistan. Later, elements of the MEU saw combat in Iraq, where there was one casualty.

Cpl. Gary Koehler, a 21-year-old assaultman from Ypsilanti, Mich., was killed by a roadside bomb Nov. 1.