thedrifter
12-25-06, 09:04 AM
Family celebrates Marine's trip home
By G. Wayne Laepple
The Daily item
December 25, 2006
MIFFLINBURG — Cynthia Roupp received just about the best Christmas present a mom can get on Saturday.
That's when she saw her son, Lance Cpl. Tristan Roupp, for the first time since he returned from Iraq in September.
Lance Cpl. Roupp has been at Camp Pendleton, Calif., since his unit, the 1st Combat Engineering Battalion, returned to the U.S. after seven months in Iraq. He expects to return to Iraq for another tour in February.
Of all the things he missed while in Iraq, his mom's home cooking was the most important.
"I made him lasagna last night," she said on Christmas Eve. "It went down really fast."
Lance Cpl. Roupp agreed. His stay at home, until Jan. 5, will include visiting with friends and attending basketball games at Mifflinburg Area High School, where he played for the Wildcats.
"Home-cooked food is great," he said. "Anything home-cooked is great."
The 2003 Mifflinburg graduate joined the Marines in March 2005.
"It's something I always wanted to do," he said. He signed on for a four-year hitch.
He was based in Fallujah, one of the hottest of the hot spots in Iraq, and his duties included building fortifications and bunkers for his fellow Marines, as well as seeking out caches of explosives and other weapons hidden by Iraqi rebels.
"We would go into an area and seek out the insurgents," he said. "You have to mingle with the civilians who live there, and you never know who your enemy might be."
The Marines reduce the amount of insurgent activity, ambushes and improvised explosive device attacks until commanders feel the area is safe. Then the area is turned over to the Army and Iraqi units.
During his tour, the Marines subdued two areas.
He said both regions were large, between Fallujah and Ramadi, another notorious hot spot.
"My platoon was attached to an infantry company in a support role," he said.
"We spent a lot of time looking for booby traps, munitions buried in the ground," he said. "If you saw something that didn't look quite right or had wires sticking out, you blew it up."
When the Marines moved into an area, they would seek out a large, well-built house and make it into an operating point. His company would fortify the house, using concrete barriers and lots of sandbags, as well as wire baskets filled with rocks and broken concrete.
"Sometimes the houses were big enough that we'd build bunkers on the roof," he said.
When he arrived in Iraq last March, he said, it was still pretty cold at night, but as the season wore on, the days would get very hot.
"You had all your gear and body armor and all, and you'd just be burning up in the heat," he said. The highest temperature he experienced was in excess of 140 degrees.
"During the middle of the day, you couldn't do much of anything," he said. "We'd go out in the morning and in the evening when it was cooler."
At Camp Pendelton, he said, the engineers have continued their training.
"At Miramar, they have an Iraqi town, with actors who play the parts of civilians and insurgents," he said. "It's like the real thing. It gets your adrenalin flowing. It's good training, especially for guys who haven't been to Iraq yet."
Back home in Mifflinburg, members of the Four Bell Church have been sending monthly packages to Lance Cpl. Roupp and his fellow Marines.
"We're really thankful to all those people," his mother said.
The packages contained homemade cookies, beef jerky and reading materials.
Before he went overseas, Lance Cpl. Roupp raised purebred Simmental beef cows for shows, and he would read about them while lying in his bunk, unable to sleep because of insurgent mortar attacks, his mother said.
"We just take it one day at a time," she said. "I pray to God every morning and every night that he will wrap his arms around Tristan and the others there and keep them safe. I pray that he'll be able to help other while he's there."
Today, the entire Roupp family, including Ms. Roupp, Tristan, his brother, Andre, and sisters Lydia and Cortney, celebrate Christmas and his safe return from Iraq. But it's in the backs of their minds that he's got to go back in February.
"We have a pretty good idea of where we'll be going when we go back," he said. "We know what we have to do."
Ellie
By G. Wayne Laepple
The Daily item
December 25, 2006
MIFFLINBURG — Cynthia Roupp received just about the best Christmas present a mom can get on Saturday.
That's when she saw her son, Lance Cpl. Tristan Roupp, for the first time since he returned from Iraq in September.
Lance Cpl. Roupp has been at Camp Pendleton, Calif., since his unit, the 1st Combat Engineering Battalion, returned to the U.S. after seven months in Iraq. He expects to return to Iraq for another tour in February.
Of all the things he missed while in Iraq, his mom's home cooking was the most important.
"I made him lasagna last night," she said on Christmas Eve. "It went down really fast."
Lance Cpl. Roupp agreed. His stay at home, until Jan. 5, will include visiting with friends and attending basketball games at Mifflinburg Area High School, where he played for the Wildcats.
"Home-cooked food is great," he said. "Anything home-cooked is great."
The 2003 Mifflinburg graduate joined the Marines in March 2005.
"It's something I always wanted to do," he said. He signed on for a four-year hitch.
He was based in Fallujah, one of the hottest of the hot spots in Iraq, and his duties included building fortifications and bunkers for his fellow Marines, as well as seeking out caches of explosives and other weapons hidden by Iraqi rebels.
"We would go into an area and seek out the insurgents," he said. "You have to mingle with the civilians who live there, and you never know who your enemy might be."
The Marines reduce the amount of insurgent activity, ambushes and improvised explosive device attacks until commanders feel the area is safe. Then the area is turned over to the Army and Iraqi units.
During his tour, the Marines subdued two areas.
He said both regions were large, between Fallujah and Ramadi, another notorious hot spot.
"My platoon was attached to an infantry company in a support role," he said.
"We spent a lot of time looking for booby traps, munitions buried in the ground," he said. "If you saw something that didn't look quite right or had wires sticking out, you blew it up."
When the Marines moved into an area, they would seek out a large, well-built house and make it into an operating point. His company would fortify the house, using concrete barriers and lots of sandbags, as well as wire baskets filled with rocks and broken concrete.
"Sometimes the houses were big enough that we'd build bunkers on the roof," he said.
When he arrived in Iraq last March, he said, it was still pretty cold at night, but as the season wore on, the days would get very hot.
"You had all your gear and body armor and all, and you'd just be burning up in the heat," he said. The highest temperature he experienced was in excess of 140 degrees.
"During the middle of the day, you couldn't do much of anything," he said. "We'd go out in the morning and in the evening when it was cooler."
At Camp Pendelton, he said, the engineers have continued their training.
"At Miramar, they have an Iraqi town, with actors who play the parts of civilians and insurgents," he said. "It's like the real thing. It gets your adrenalin flowing. It's good training, especially for guys who haven't been to Iraq yet."
Back home in Mifflinburg, members of the Four Bell Church have been sending monthly packages to Lance Cpl. Roupp and his fellow Marines.
"We're really thankful to all those people," his mother said.
The packages contained homemade cookies, beef jerky and reading materials.
Before he went overseas, Lance Cpl. Roupp raised purebred Simmental beef cows for shows, and he would read about them while lying in his bunk, unable to sleep because of insurgent mortar attacks, his mother said.
"We just take it one day at a time," she said. "I pray to God every morning and every night that he will wrap his arms around Tristan and the others there and keep them safe. I pray that he'll be able to help other while he's there."
Today, the entire Roupp family, including Ms. Roupp, Tristan, his brother, Andre, and sisters Lydia and Cortney, celebrate Christmas and his safe return from Iraq. But it's in the backs of their minds that he's got to go back in February.
"We have a pretty good idea of where we'll be going when we go back," he said. "We know what we have to do."
Ellie