thedrifter
02-19-03, 01:13 AM
By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, February 18, 2003
CAMP COYOTE, Kuwait — These are the things they carry: a St. Christopher medallion passed down from Marine to Marine since World War II. A father’s insignia pin from the first Gulf War. A picture of a newborn baby in a child’s locket. A fiancée’s hair clip.
If American troops are thrown into battle, they will be armed with a host of hi-tech weapons and protective gear. But almost every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine will carry something far more potent — a reminder of home, a talisman against death, a silent appeal for safety.
“It’s my promise to my baby that I’m going to do whatever it takes to get home, to see her grow up,” said Lance Cpl. Michael Kerry of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, patting the tiny silver locket he keeps tucked away under his body armor.
The locket, which Kerry calls nothing more than a dollar-store trinket, contains a photo of his daughter Jamie, born just a month before he deployed to Kuwait.
Kerry is reluctant to show it, partly afraid that the more times he takes it out to stare at the photo, the greater the chances that he could lose the locket. But there’s also another reason.
“This is just for me,” he said. “There’s all sorts of things that you want to share with your buddies and joke about and stuff. But this isn’t one of those things. This is mine.”
For as long as soldiers have been sent off to war, they have poured their faith into an endless list of objects. Among the most popular are religious medallions.
Marine Lt. Col. Neita Armstrong, who is deployed to Kuwait with the 1st Force Service Support Group, wears a faded, tarnished silver St. Christopher medallion on a chain around her neck.
Two days before she shipped out from Camp Pendleton, Calif., bound for a dusty camp just miles from the Iraqi border, she received a FedEx package.
Inside was the medallion. It was given to her older brother, Lt. Col. Phil Wagner, who wore it throughout a combat tour in Vietnam. It was passed down to her younger brother, Marine Maj. Chris Wagner, on a previous deployment to the Middle East a decade ago.
“Now I’ve got it, and I’m going to pass it along to another Marine when all this is over,” said Armstrong, a native of Finley, Ohio, who also wears two crosses given to her by friends from her church.
Armstrong and her brothers have no idea who started passing down the medallion, similar to ones worn by thousands before them to invoke the patron saint of soldiers.
Most of the markings on this particular medallion have rubbed off, but Armstrong believes it has been passed down from Marine to Marine since World War II.
“It’s really kind of unbelievable when you think of what this might have been through,” Armstrong said. “And now it’s around my neck.”
Marine Cpl. Joel Perry, a 20-year-old from Ravencliff, W.Va., knows exactly what the charm he carries has seen.
It is a black, metal insignia pin that his father, John, wore as an Army sergeant in the first Gulf War.
It has returned safely from Kuwait once before, Perry said, and he is confident it will do so again. The pin also came with words of advice.
“He told me to keep my head low and not to be scared,” Joel Perry said of his father. “He said, ‘God will be with you.’ I believe him.”
Perry also carries a hair clip from his fiancée, who is waiting for him in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
It’s rare that a soldier doesn’t have an object with a story or special meaning.
“I guess I’m just not superstitious or anything,” said Army Pvt. Chris Jones, deployed with the 377th Theater Support Group to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
“The only thing like that I’m carrying is just words of encouragement and love from my family.”
While that works for Jones, other soldiers are almost maniacal about the charms they will wear in the coming weeks, as the prospect of war with Iraq becomes almost inevitable.
“I’ve got about a dozen things that are supposed to give me good luck,” said Army Sgt. Maurice Jones, a 28-year-old assigned to the 46th Engineer Battalion from Fort Polk, La.
“Right now, they’re all in a little tin next to my cot. I’m still kind of deciding if I want to just carry one at a time or if I should try and stuff them all somewhere,” he said.
Among the items given to him by various friends and family members just before he deployed to Kuwait: a Zippo lighter, a silver dollar, a money clip, a pocket watch. …
His favorite is a pink rabbit’s foot from his kids.
“I think I’ll probably end up putting that one around my neck or under my body armor,” Jones said.
“Keep it next to my heart, you know? That’s where it belongs.”
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=13151
Sempers,
Roger
European edition, Tuesday, February 18, 2003
CAMP COYOTE, Kuwait — These are the things they carry: a St. Christopher medallion passed down from Marine to Marine since World War II. A father’s insignia pin from the first Gulf War. A picture of a newborn baby in a child’s locket. A fiancée’s hair clip.
If American troops are thrown into battle, they will be armed with a host of hi-tech weapons and protective gear. But almost every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine will carry something far more potent — a reminder of home, a talisman against death, a silent appeal for safety.
“It’s my promise to my baby that I’m going to do whatever it takes to get home, to see her grow up,” said Lance Cpl. Michael Kerry of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, patting the tiny silver locket he keeps tucked away under his body armor.
The locket, which Kerry calls nothing more than a dollar-store trinket, contains a photo of his daughter Jamie, born just a month before he deployed to Kuwait.
Kerry is reluctant to show it, partly afraid that the more times he takes it out to stare at the photo, the greater the chances that he could lose the locket. But there’s also another reason.
“This is just for me,” he said. “There’s all sorts of things that you want to share with your buddies and joke about and stuff. But this isn’t one of those things. This is mine.”
For as long as soldiers have been sent off to war, they have poured their faith into an endless list of objects. Among the most popular are religious medallions.
Marine Lt. Col. Neita Armstrong, who is deployed to Kuwait with the 1st Force Service Support Group, wears a faded, tarnished silver St. Christopher medallion on a chain around her neck.
Two days before she shipped out from Camp Pendleton, Calif., bound for a dusty camp just miles from the Iraqi border, she received a FedEx package.
Inside was the medallion. It was given to her older brother, Lt. Col. Phil Wagner, who wore it throughout a combat tour in Vietnam. It was passed down to her younger brother, Marine Maj. Chris Wagner, on a previous deployment to the Middle East a decade ago.
“Now I’ve got it, and I’m going to pass it along to another Marine when all this is over,” said Armstrong, a native of Finley, Ohio, who also wears two crosses given to her by friends from her church.
Armstrong and her brothers have no idea who started passing down the medallion, similar to ones worn by thousands before them to invoke the patron saint of soldiers.
Most of the markings on this particular medallion have rubbed off, but Armstrong believes it has been passed down from Marine to Marine since World War II.
“It’s really kind of unbelievable when you think of what this might have been through,” Armstrong said. “And now it’s around my neck.”
Marine Cpl. Joel Perry, a 20-year-old from Ravencliff, W.Va., knows exactly what the charm he carries has seen.
It is a black, metal insignia pin that his father, John, wore as an Army sergeant in the first Gulf War.
It has returned safely from Kuwait once before, Perry said, and he is confident it will do so again. The pin also came with words of advice.
“He told me to keep my head low and not to be scared,” Joel Perry said of his father. “He said, ‘God will be with you.’ I believe him.”
Perry also carries a hair clip from his fiancée, who is waiting for him in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
It’s rare that a soldier doesn’t have an object with a story or special meaning.
“I guess I’m just not superstitious or anything,” said Army Pvt. Chris Jones, deployed with the 377th Theater Support Group to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
“The only thing like that I’m carrying is just words of encouragement and love from my family.”
While that works for Jones, other soldiers are almost maniacal about the charms they will wear in the coming weeks, as the prospect of war with Iraq becomes almost inevitable.
“I’ve got about a dozen things that are supposed to give me good luck,” said Army Sgt. Maurice Jones, a 28-year-old assigned to the 46th Engineer Battalion from Fort Polk, La.
“Right now, they’re all in a little tin next to my cot. I’m still kind of deciding if I want to just carry one at a time or if I should try and stuff them all somewhere,” he said.
Among the items given to him by various friends and family members just before he deployed to Kuwait: a Zippo lighter, a silver dollar, a money clip, a pocket watch. …
His favorite is a pink rabbit’s foot from his kids.
“I think I’ll probably end up putting that one around my neck or under my body armor,” Jones said.
“Keep it next to my heart, you know? That’s where it belongs.”
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=13151
Sempers,
Roger