thedrifter
04-04-07, 08:56 AM
Crowds welcome Marines back from Iraq
Dam Security Unit-3 returns after almost six months
Originally published April 04, 2007
By Alison Walker-Baird
News-Post Staff
FREDERICK — Families and friends of local Marines who spent almost six months in Iraq took a collective sigh of relief as three coach buses rounded the corner and pulled into the unit's Frederick reserve center just after noon Tuesday.
"I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath all these months," said Barbara Bent of Eldersburg, after reuniting with her son, Staff Sgt. Gene Danfelt of Hagerstown.
Dam Security Unit-3, a 110-member reserve unit that deployed to Iraq in October, arrived in North Carolina on Friday night and left Camp Lejeune early Tuesday morning, bound for Frederick.
The Marines reunited with friends and family at the Pfc. Flair U.S. Army Reserve Center after their buses wound through downtown Frederick.
Pockets of well-wishers gathered on Rosemont Avenue and Market Street, holding signs and American flags during the 80-degree day capped by a clear blue sky. Rows of tiny American flags flanked the reserve center's gate.
The horn of a police escort heralded the unit's arrival, family and friends cheering, clapping, with cameras flashing and video cameras rolling as buses carrying the Marines pulled up.
The Fort Detrick-based unit, part of Regimental Combat Team-7 in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, previously was Bravo Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and is based at the reserve center.
Most of the unit's members were patrolling and securing Iraqi waterways in Haditha and the Euphrates River Valley. Several conducted security operations in violence hot spot Ramadi, the Iraq city west of Baghdad that is the capital of Anbar province.
After walking down the bus steps — tearful and excited parents and spouses straining to pick out their Marine from the homogeneous bunch — the Marines dropped off their weapons before making their way over.
For many, Tuesday's homecoming was their first reunion in six months, though dozens of family and friends had driven to the unit's barracks at Camp Lejeune to meet the Marines hours after they flew into Cherry Point, N.C.
Christy Schumacher of Great Mills, who was waiting at the reserve center for her husband, drove to North Carolina for his arrival.
"The butterflies, all the adrenaline, it all comes to fruition," Schumacher said, standing with a red star-shaped balloon and the couple's golden retriever, Josie. "The first time you get to see them, it's something I'll never forget."
This week ended her husband's second deployment. Chris Schumacher, one of several Navy corpsmen in the unit, deployed in 2003 with the 4th LAR's Charlie Company in Riverton, Utah.
About 75 percent of the Marines in DSU-3 were on their first deployment.
The unit left the reserve center Sept. 25 and spent about two weeks completing administration preparations before flying to Iraq on Oct. 11. Their homecoming this week is about a month ahead of schedule, Devine said.
The Marine Corps confirmed the unit's deployment March 31, 2006, and activated the unit in late May. The Marines spent the summer training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland; and Camp Lejeune.
'I'm more thanwilling to go back'
Wearing a red Marine Corps T-shirt, Lance Cpl. Christopher Charette, the only Marine injured during the deployment, cheered for the rest of his unit as it pulled up.
He reunited with the unit Friday, not having seen his fellow Marines since gunshot wounds forced him to leave Iraq two weeks after their arrival.
"I'm more than willing to go back (to Iraq)," said Charette, 21, of Leesburg, Va.
Charette was shot twice Oct. 23 during security patrol on the Euphrates River. Doctors amputated his damaged left thumb and he is recovering from nerve damage in his left shoulder.
Charette, who is left-handed, is in physical therapy five days a week and is regaining movement in his left arm. He may have surgery to create a thumb on his left hand with the hand's index finger.
No one in the unit was killed.
"They definitely have angels on their backs -- that's the absolute truth," unit spokesman Maj. Christian Devine said.
Two Marines have been killed during Bravo Company deployments.
During deployment from February 2002 to September 2003, Lance Cpl. Gregory MacDonald was killed and two Marines injured when the road under their vehicle crumbled and they rolled into a canal.
In the early 1990s, the Bravo Company's Lance Cpl. James M. Lang was killed during the company's deployment to the Persian Gulf.
Future deployment possibility
In a news conference Tuesday, President Bush renewed his threat to veto Senate- and House-passed bills that would call for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq in 2008, saying the bills "undercut the troops," according to the Associated Press.
Karen Keller of Frederick, whose son is a DSU-3 Marine, said she is opposed to setting a date to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq or any withdrawal of war funding.
"I'm thrilled my son is home, but I still support those troops who are still there and wanting to be coming home," she said.
Friends and family are aware Tuesday's homecoming may not be the last, facing the possibility the Marines will get the call to head back to Iraq.
"There's always a chance," Keller said Tuesday, before leaving for the reserve center to greet her son, Lance Cpl. Brandon Keller, 24.
She and husband, Tom Keller, spent the morning hammering red, white and blue welcome signs into their front lawn on West Second Street.
The last six months have been painfully slow, she said, time dragging between each weekly call from her son.
"When a week goes by and you don't hear from him, you're tense, nervous, waiting for that phone call," Karen said.
She grinned as she described her son's plans to golf, visit friends and travel to Alabama with his older brother during the next few months.
The family will hold a belated Christmas -- tree, turkey and all, she said -- later this month.
When the Kellers arrived home with Brandon, Karen said, they would be sitting down for a dinner no amount of care packages and mailed junk food could replace: New York strip steak, baked potatoes and macaroni and cheese -- all made by mom.
Ellie
Dam Security Unit-3 returns after almost six months
Originally published April 04, 2007
By Alison Walker-Baird
News-Post Staff
FREDERICK — Families and friends of local Marines who spent almost six months in Iraq took a collective sigh of relief as three coach buses rounded the corner and pulled into the unit's Frederick reserve center just after noon Tuesday.
"I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath all these months," said Barbara Bent of Eldersburg, after reuniting with her son, Staff Sgt. Gene Danfelt of Hagerstown.
Dam Security Unit-3, a 110-member reserve unit that deployed to Iraq in October, arrived in North Carolina on Friday night and left Camp Lejeune early Tuesday morning, bound for Frederick.
The Marines reunited with friends and family at the Pfc. Flair U.S. Army Reserve Center after their buses wound through downtown Frederick.
Pockets of well-wishers gathered on Rosemont Avenue and Market Street, holding signs and American flags during the 80-degree day capped by a clear blue sky. Rows of tiny American flags flanked the reserve center's gate.
The horn of a police escort heralded the unit's arrival, family and friends cheering, clapping, with cameras flashing and video cameras rolling as buses carrying the Marines pulled up.
The Fort Detrick-based unit, part of Regimental Combat Team-7 in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, previously was Bravo Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and is based at the reserve center.
Most of the unit's members were patrolling and securing Iraqi waterways in Haditha and the Euphrates River Valley. Several conducted security operations in violence hot spot Ramadi, the Iraq city west of Baghdad that is the capital of Anbar province.
After walking down the bus steps — tearful and excited parents and spouses straining to pick out their Marine from the homogeneous bunch — the Marines dropped off their weapons before making their way over.
For many, Tuesday's homecoming was their first reunion in six months, though dozens of family and friends had driven to the unit's barracks at Camp Lejeune to meet the Marines hours after they flew into Cherry Point, N.C.
Christy Schumacher of Great Mills, who was waiting at the reserve center for her husband, drove to North Carolina for his arrival.
"The butterflies, all the adrenaline, it all comes to fruition," Schumacher said, standing with a red star-shaped balloon and the couple's golden retriever, Josie. "The first time you get to see them, it's something I'll never forget."
This week ended her husband's second deployment. Chris Schumacher, one of several Navy corpsmen in the unit, deployed in 2003 with the 4th LAR's Charlie Company in Riverton, Utah.
About 75 percent of the Marines in DSU-3 were on their first deployment.
The unit left the reserve center Sept. 25 and spent about two weeks completing administration preparations before flying to Iraq on Oct. 11. Their homecoming this week is about a month ahead of schedule, Devine said.
The Marine Corps confirmed the unit's deployment March 31, 2006, and activated the unit in late May. The Marines spent the summer training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland; and Camp Lejeune.
'I'm more thanwilling to go back'
Wearing a red Marine Corps T-shirt, Lance Cpl. Christopher Charette, the only Marine injured during the deployment, cheered for the rest of his unit as it pulled up.
He reunited with the unit Friday, not having seen his fellow Marines since gunshot wounds forced him to leave Iraq two weeks after their arrival.
"I'm more than willing to go back (to Iraq)," said Charette, 21, of Leesburg, Va.
Charette was shot twice Oct. 23 during security patrol on the Euphrates River. Doctors amputated his damaged left thumb and he is recovering from nerve damage in his left shoulder.
Charette, who is left-handed, is in physical therapy five days a week and is regaining movement in his left arm. He may have surgery to create a thumb on his left hand with the hand's index finger.
No one in the unit was killed.
"They definitely have angels on their backs -- that's the absolute truth," unit spokesman Maj. Christian Devine said.
Two Marines have been killed during Bravo Company deployments.
During deployment from February 2002 to September 2003, Lance Cpl. Gregory MacDonald was killed and two Marines injured when the road under their vehicle crumbled and they rolled into a canal.
In the early 1990s, the Bravo Company's Lance Cpl. James M. Lang was killed during the company's deployment to the Persian Gulf.
Future deployment possibility
In a news conference Tuesday, President Bush renewed his threat to veto Senate- and House-passed bills that would call for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq in 2008, saying the bills "undercut the troops," according to the Associated Press.
Karen Keller of Frederick, whose son is a DSU-3 Marine, said she is opposed to setting a date to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq or any withdrawal of war funding.
"I'm thrilled my son is home, but I still support those troops who are still there and wanting to be coming home," she said.
Friends and family are aware Tuesday's homecoming may not be the last, facing the possibility the Marines will get the call to head back to Iraq.
"There's always a chance," Keller said Tuesday, before leaving for the reserve center to greet her son, Lance Cpl. Brandon Keller, 24.
She and husband, Tom Keller, spent the morning hammering red, white and blue welcome signs into their front lawn on West Second Street.
The last six months have been painfully slow, she said, time dragging between each weekly call from her son.
"When a week goes by and you don't hear from him, you're tense, nervous, waiting for that phone call," Karen said.
She grinned as she described her son's plans to golf, visit friends and travel to Alabama with his older brother during the next few months.
The family will hold a belated Christmas -- tree, turkey and all, she said -- later this month.
When the Kellers arrived home with Brandon, Karen said, they would be sitting down for a dinner no amount of care packages and mailed junk food could replace: New York strip steak, baked potatoes and macaroni and cheese -- all made by mom.
Ellie