thedrifter
03-16-07, 07:11 AM
Mobile-based Marines welcomed home
Friday, March 16, 2007
By NADIA M. TAYLOR
Staff Reporter
A sudden downpour halted to a cool drizzle and a rainbow peeked through the clouds Thursday evening as a charter bus carrying about 40 members of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company pulled into their reserve center in Langan Municipal Park.
After seven months in Iraq, these Mobile-based troops were home.
Cheers erupted from the crowd of family and friends as the Marines got off the bus.
"I've been going crazy since he left," 23-year-old Natalie Maloof said through happy tears after she stood on her tiptoes to give her boyfriend, Lance Cpl. Robert Keane, 20, a long and passionate kiss.
Mothers and fathers, wives and girlfriends, and children of all ages -- some newborns when their fathers left -- were in attendance to welcome their Marines home.
Sgt. Matthew Legg, who was returning from his third deployment since 2003, scooped his 7-month-old son Aiden from his wife Sara's arms and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Aiden was born less than a week before Matthew Legg was deployed, the family said, and Thursday was the first time the Gulf Breeze, Fla., father was able to hold his baby since the child was just a few days old.
The returning members of the 3rd Force served out of Al Asad in Al Anbar Province in western Iraq, "one of the most volatile areas of Iraq," according to Maj. Steve Taylor, commanding officer of the unit based at the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center on Museum Drive in Mobile.
Taylor said there were no
serious injuries among the 3rd Force Marines during this deployment.
Five detachments of 3rd Force Marines have been deployed to Iraq since the war began four years ago, and most have served at least two deployments to that country, Taylor said.
Maj. Dion Anglin, 35, of Oshkosh, Wis., has served two tours in Iraq since 2004 and also served a tour of duty in Kuwait in 1998, he said Thursday.
His parents, Marilyn and Dan Anglin, of Warsaw, Ind., flew to Mobile to welcome their son home.
"It's very exciting," Marilyn Anglin said. "We'll go wherever he is."
She said the family had flown to Camp LeJeune, N.C., to welcome him home from his first tour in Iraq and that 10 family members had flown to Twentynine Palms, Calif., to see him off this time.
Care packages filled with cookies, homemade party mix and other treats kept Maj. Anglin thinking of home while he was deployed, his mother said with a smile.
Lance Cpl. Adam Errickson's young new bride, Tonya Errickson, kept him thinking of home.
The Erricksons, who live near Milton, Fla., were married Aug. 11, just four days before Adam Errickson was deployed, his wife said.
Though the couple has known each other since Tonya Errickson, 19, was in sixth grade, they decided just three weeks before their vows to set the date, she said. They had been engaged since Jan. 11, 2006.
"We decided to just go ahead and get married," said Tonya Errickson, who Thursday was in Mobile with her in-laws, Ken and Jaye Errickson.
Tonya Errickson nestled her head on her husband's shoulder in the parking lot of the reserve center, snuggling and smiling into the crook of his neck. With her husband home, the Erricksons will finally get a chance to be newlyweds together.
"We have a list of things to do," Tonya Errickson said. But first, the family would go to dinner.
Ellie
Friday, March 16, 2007
By NADIA M. TAYLOR
Staff Reporter
A sudden downpour halted to a cool drizzle and a rainbow peeked through the clouds Thursday evening as a charter bus carrying about 40 members of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company pulled into their reserve center in Langan Municipal Park.
After seven months in Iraq, these Mobile-based troops were home.
Cheers erupted from the crowd of family and friends as the Marines got off the bus.
"I've been going crazy since he left," 23-year-old Natalie Maloof said through happy tears after she stood on her tiptoes to give her boyfriend, Lance Cpl. Robert Keane, 20, a long and passionate kiss.
Mothers and fathers, wives and girlfriends, and children of all ages -- some newborns when their fathers left -- were in attendance to welcome their Marines home.
Sgt. Matthew Legg, who was returning from his third deployment since 2003, scooped his 7-month-old son Aiden from his wife Sara's arms and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Aiden was born less than a week before Matthew Legg was deployed, the family said, and Thursday was the first time the Gulf Breeze, Fla., father was able to hold his baby since the child was just a few days old.
The returning members of the 3rd Force served out of Al Asad in Al Anbar Province in western Iraq, "one of the most volatile areas of Iraq," according to Maj. Steve Taylor, commanding officer of the unit based at the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center on Museum Drive in Mobile.
Taylor said there were no
serious injuries among the 3rd Force Marines during this deployment.
Five detachments of 3rd Force Marines have been deployed to Iraq since the war began four years ago, and most have served at least two deployments to that country, Taylor said.
Maj. Dion Anglin, 35, of Oshkosh, Wis., has served two tours in Iraq since 2004 and also served a tour of duty in Kuwait in 1998, he said Thursday.
His parents, Marilyn and Dan Anglin, of Warsaw, Ind., flew to Mobile to welcome their son home.
"It's very exciting," Marilyn Anglin said. "We'll go wherever he is."
She said the family had flown to Camp LeJeune, N.C., to welcome him home from his first tour in Iraq and that 10 family members had flown to Twentynine Palms, Calif., to see him off this time.
Care packages filled with cookies, homemade party mix and other treats kept Maj. Anglin thinking of home while he was deployed, his mother said with a smile.
Lance Cpl. Adam Errickson's young new bride, Tonya Errickson, kept him thinking of home.
The Erricksons, who live near Milton, Fla., were married Aug. 11, just four days before Adam Errickson was deployed, his wife said.
Though the couple has known each other since Tonya Errickson, 19, was in sixth grade, they decided just three weeks before their vows to set the date, she said. They had been engaged since Jan. 11, 2006.
"We decided to just go ahead and get married," said Tonya Errickson, who Thursday was in Mobile with her in-laws, Ken and Jaye Errickson.
Tonya Errickson nestled her head on her husband's shoulder in the parking lot of the reserve center, snuggling and smiling into the crook of his neck. With her husband home, the Erricksons will finally get a chance to be newlyweds together.
"We have a list of things to do," Tonya Errickson said. But first, the family would go to dinner.
Ellie