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thedrifter
03-13-07, 04:41 AM
Published: March 12, 2007 12:00 am

Marine friends, moms form a bond
By Eric Parry , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune

DERRY - When Andrew Dimarca of Kingston heard that two of his best friends were joining the Marines in 2004, he said, he knew he had to follow their lead.

Dimarca and his friends, Stephen Holmes of Sandown and Bobby Jamer of Bedford, are home after seven months in Iraq's Anbar province, one of the most dangerous regions of the country.

A crowd of friends and family members gathered at Brookstone Park Golf Course Saturday night for a homecoming party for the three young men.

"They're huge heroes to us," said Dimarca's mother, Dory, also of Kingston.

Dimarca said she remembers asking her 22-year-old son why he would choose to go to war when he enlisted.

"I feel like I wanted to give something back to my country," was his only reply, she said.

He gave a variation of that answer when he was stationed in Iraq: "I'm here because I want you be safe there."

The three men were all part of the same unit in Iraq, although Dimarca was in a different company than Holmes and Jamer, both 20.

Dimarca said having two of his best friends with him at war half way around the world was comforting.

"Knowing those two were there helped a lot, knowing they were going through the same thing," he said.

The three weren't the only ones to form a strong bond.

Dimarca's mother said she became close to Holmes' mother, Christine, while their sons were away.

"We became each other psychiatrists," Dory Dimarca said.

The two called each other to share news or to comfort each other whenever they were having a bad day.

"Unless you're a parent who's experiencing it at the same time, you can't understand it," Dimarca's mother said. "Every time I heard a door shut, my blood would run cold."

Dimarca's sister, Anastasia, 20, who had sent her brother at least a letter a week while he was overseas, said she didn't get any sleep the night her brother came home as she listened to his stories and looked at his photos from Iraq.

"That was my birthday present, my brother coming home," she said.

The three young men know they will be returning for another tour of Iraq sometime after September but for now are happy to be safely home with time to relax and see their friends and family members.