thedrifter
05-28-07, 06:48 AM
Families send off BR reserves unit
Marines head out for fight in Iraq
By SANDY DAVIS
Advocate staff writer
Published: May 28, 2007
Four-year-old Cole Bladsacker’s face lit up Thursday morning when his father, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Rickie Bladsacker, stepped between two parked buses near Baton Rouge Metro Airport and blew his son a kiss — a last kiss goodbye.
The elder Bladsacker, 27, was one of about 100 Marines from the U.S. Marine Reserves’ Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, with headquarters in Baton Rouge, who left for nearly four months of training at Camp LeJeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif., before heading to Iraq in September.
“It’s a very emotional time for all of us,” said Stella Bladsacker, Rickie Bladsacker’s mother, as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Several hundred family members and friends jammed into the parking lot of the Marines’ headquarters just down the road from the airport.
They waved U.S. flags, took pictures and held onto their loved ones for the last few minutes before the troops boarded buses to the airport.
The mournful sound of “Amazing Grace” permeated the air as members of the Pipes and Drums of the Caledonia Society of Baton Rouge — wearing plaid kilts and playing into bagpipes — marched ceremoniously through the crowd.
As the bagpipes wailed, Bryan Caldwell leaned on a cane and used his fist to wipe the tears off his face.
“I guess I do have mixed feelings about this. I don’t want him to go, but then I do,” he said of his son, Lance Cpl. Justin Caldwell, 19.
“This is what he’s always wanted to do, so there’s not much I can say,” the elder Caldwell said.
Lance Cpl. Chris Doyal, 19, kept his arms firmly around the waist of Kendall, 19, his wife of eight months. “I’m ready to go,” Doyal said. “I believe in the cause and I’m in the Marines — which is the best branch of the military to be in.”
His wife, an LSU student of international studies, wasn’t quite as enthusiastic.
“I don’t want him to go,” she said. “But I do support him. I’ll just be glad when he gets home.”
As he waited to leave, Sgt. Baker Brooks, 25, who was named the U.S. Marine Reservist of the Year in 2006, cradled his 1-month-old son, Baker Mosely Brooks Jr., in his arms.
The baby, dressed in a Marine uniform that his father sewed, slept soundly.
“Right now it’s not so bad,” Brooks said. “I can see my wife and son. But it’s never easy to leave everyone behind.”
Brooks said he is passionate in his support of the war in Iraq.
“Even when there’s no end in sight, and there’s no possibility of victory, it’s not a reason to quit,” he said. “I’m glad to go over there and fight.
“I may not be able to change the war, but I hope I’m able to kill at least one insurgent and prevent him from coming to this country after us,” Brooks said.
This will be Brooks’ second tour of duty in Iraq — along with some of the other members of the unit: the Baton Rouge reservist unit was deployed in 2003 shortly after the invasion of Iraq began.
And, as in 2003, it is expected the unit will be in Iraq for seven months — the length of time the Marines have set for deployments, said Major Scott Mayeux, a spokesman for the unit.
What will be different on this tour of duty is the amount of combat. In 2003, the Marines said they engaged in limited amount of skirmishes.
“This time we do expect to see a lot more action,” Brooks said.
Mayeux said the unit will participate in “security and stability operations” in an undisclosed location in Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Garrett Brazell, 24, of Austin, Texas, called this deployment “one that was meant to be,” at least for him.
“I got my degree from LSU in 2005,” he said. “Right after that, I got a job in Austin, Texas.”
Instead of transferring to a Marine reserve unit in Austin, Brazell stayed with the Baton Rouge unit.
“I stayed because I knew they were going to deploy to Iraq and I wanted to go,” he said.
Once a month, Brazell make the trip to Baton Rouge from Austin for the unit’s monthly drill and then home again.
“Finally, that drive just wore me down and I transferred to a unit in Austin,” Brazell said. “I just figured I wasn’t going to get to deploy.”
But that changed when it was determined that more Marines were needed in the Baton Rouge unit for the deployment.
“And they picked my Austin unit to augment it,” Brazell said. “So I’m here deploying with people that I went to high school and college with.”
Brazell admitted it is “scary” knowing he’s going to Iraq.
“But, you know, this is what I wanted when I walked into the recruiters’ office,” he said. “So, I want to do what I have to do and then come home to my family.”
Lance Cpl. Joe Rose, 37, stood nearby, savoring his last few minutes with his wife and two of their daughters.
Rose said there’s no question that being a Marine is what’s “in my heart.”
Rose, an over-the-road truck driver, had been out of the Marine Reserves since 1994.
And since then, he longed to be a Marine again.
“In 1998, I started trying to get back in,” he said.
It took him nine years to succeed; two weeks ago — on May 9 — the Marines finally let him re-enlist.
“It’s in my heart to serve with the Marines,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a Marine.
“I’m living my dream now,” he added with a wide smile.
Margie Rose, Joe Rose’s wife, said the last few weeks have been tough.
“He only told me a few weeks ago that this unit might deploy,” she said. “And then, my husband didn’t know whether they would let him deploy because he’d just gotten back in.”
In the end, the Marines agreed to let Rose deploy.
Two of the couple’s daughters, Nakosha, 9, and Katelain, 8, stood quietly next to their mother under clear morning skies Thursday.
“I think seeing all of this today has made them realize that he’s really leaving,” she said. “It’s hard on them.”
And for her, it’s even harder.
“I miss him already,” she said.
And on the eve of Memorial Day weekend, the departure ceremony attracted several veterans of earlier wars.
Michael Wright, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, stood on the sidelines and watched the farewells.
He said that when he deployed in the late 1960s, there were no such gatherings of family and friends to see servicemen off.
And, when one came back, there were no crowds cheering their return.
Still, he said, it was difficult watching the young men leave, especially his friend Rickie Bladsacker.
“If I knew I could save just one them, I would go in their place,” he said. “Their lives are just beginning.
“But there’s nothing you can do about it now,” he said.
Finally, it was time for the Marines to leave; they grabbed their duffle bags, back packs and loaded onto the buses.
As the buses lumbered away, the crowds cheered, yelled and waved their small American flags.
And, standing with his mother and grandparents near the road where the buses passed by, Cole Bladsacker searched for his father’s face in the buses’ windows, waved his small hand and said in a barely audible voice, “Bye, daddy.”
Ellie
Marines head out for fight in Iraq
By SANDY DAVIS
Advocate staff writer
Published: May 28, 2007
Four-year-old Cole Bladsacker’s face lit up Thursday morning when his father, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Rickie Bladsacker, stepped between two parked buses near Baton Rouge Metro Airport and blew his son a kiss — a last kiss goodbye.
The elder Bladsacker, 27, was one of about 100 Marines from the U.S. Marine Reserves’ Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, with headquarters in Baton Rouge, who left for nearly four months of training at Camp LeJeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif., before heading to Iraq in September.
“It’s a very emotional time for all of us,” said Stella Bladsacker, Rickie Bladsacker’s mother, as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Several hundred family members and friends jammed into the parking lot of the Marines’ headquarters just down the road from the airport.
They waved U.S. flags, took pictures and held onto their loved ones for the last few minutes before the troops boarded buses to the airport.
The mournful sound of “Amazing Grace” permeated the air as members of the Pipes and Drums of the Caledonia Society of Baton Rouge — wearing plaid kilts and playing into bagpipes — marched ceremoniously through the crowd.
As the bagpipes wailed, Bryan Caldwell leaned on a cane and used his fist to wipe the tears off his face.
“I guess I do have mixed feelings about this. I don’t want him to go, but then I do,” he said of his son, Lance Cpl. Justin Caldwell, 19.
“This is what he’s always wanted to do, so there’s not much I can say,” the elder Caldwell said.
Lance Cpl. Chris Doyal, 19, kept his arms firmly around the waist of Kendall, 19, his wife of eight months. “I’m ready to go,” Doyal said. “I believe in the cause and I’m in the Marines — which is the best branch of the military to be in.”
His wife, an LSU student of international studies, wasn’t quite as enthusiastic.
“I don’t want him to go,” she said. “But I do support him. I’ll just be glad when he gets home.”
As he waited to leave, Sgt. Baker Brooks, 25, who was named the U.S. Marine Reservist of the Year in 2006, cradled his 1-month-old son, Baker Mosely Brooks Jr., in his arms.
The baby, dressed in a Marine uniform that his father sewed, slept soundly.
“Right now it’s not so bad,” Brooks said. “I can see my wife and son. But it’s never easy to leave everyone behind.”
Brooks said he is passionate in his support of the war in Iraq.
“Even when there’s no end in sight, and there’s no possibility of victory, it’s not a reason to quit,” he said. “I’m glad to go over there and fight.
“I may not be able to change the war, but I hope I’m able to kill at least one insurgent and prevent him from coming to this country after us,” Brooks said.
This will be Brooks’ second tour of duty in Iraq — along with some of the other members of the unit: the Baton Rouge reservist unit was deployed in 2003 shortly after the invasion of Iraq began.
And, as in 2003, it is expected the unit will be in Iraq for seven months — the length of time the Marines have set for deployments, said Major Scott Mayeux, a spokesman for the unit.
What will be different on this tour of duty is the amount of combat. In 2003, the Marines said they engaged in limited amount of skirmishes.
“This time we do expect to see a lot more action,” Brooks said.
Mayeux said the unit will participate in “security and stability operations” in an undisclosed location in Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Garrett Brazell, 24, of Austin, Texas, called this deployment “one that was meant to be,” at least for him.
“I got my degree from LSU in 2005,” he said. “Right after that, I got a job in Austin, Texas.”
Instead of transferring to a Marine reserve unit in Austin, Brazell stayed with the Baton Rouge unit.
“I stayed because I knew they were going to deploy to Iraq and I wanted to go,” he said.
Once a month, Brazell make the trip to Baton Rouge from Austin for the unit’s monthly drill and then home again.
“Finally, that drive just wore me down and I transferred to a unit in Austin,” Brazell said. “I just figured I wasn’t going to get to deploy.”
But that changed when it was determined that more Marines were needed in the Baton Rouge unit for the deployment.
“And they picked my Austin unit to augment it,” Brazell said. “So I’m here deploying with people that I went to high school and college with.”
Brazell admitted it is “scary” knowing he’s going to Iraq.
“But, you know, this is what I wanted when I walked into the recruiters’ office,” he said. “So, I want to do what I have to do and then come home to my family.”
Lance Cpl. Joe Rose, 37, stood nearby, savoring his last few minutes with his wife and two of their daughters.
Rose said there’s no question that being a Marine is what’s “in my heart.”
Rose, an over-the-road truck driver, had been out of the Marine Reserves since 1994.
And since then, he longed to be a Marine again.
“In 1998, I started trying to get back in,” he said.
It took him nine years to succeed; two weeks ago — on May 9 — the Marines finally let him re-enlist.
“It’s in my heart to serve with the Marines,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a Marine.
“I’m living my dream now,” he added with a wide smile.
Margie Rose, Joe Rose’s wife, said the last few weeks have been tough.
“He only told me a few weeks ago that this unit might deploy,” she said. “And then, my husband didn’t know whether they would let him deploy because he’d just gotten back in.”
In the end, the Marines agreed to let Rose deploy.
Two of the couple’s daughters, Nakosha, 9, and Katelain, 8, stood quietly next to their mother under clear morning skies Thursday.
“I think seeing all of this today has made them realize that he’s really leaving,” she said. “It’s hard on them.”
And for her, it’s even harder.
“I miss him already,” she said.
And on the eve of Memorial Day weekend, the departure ceremony attracted several veterans of earlier wars.
Michael Wright, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, stood on the sidelines and watched the farewells.
He said that when he deployed in the late 1960s, there were no such gatherings of family and friends to see servicemen off.
And, when one came back, there were no crowds cheering their return.
Still, he said, it was difficult watching the young men leave, especially his friend Rickie Bladsacker.
“If I knew I could save just one them, I would go in their place,” he said. “Their lives are just beginning.
“But there’s nothing you can do about it now,” he said.
Finally, it was time for the Marines to leave; they grabbed their duffle bags, back packs and loaded onto the buses.
As the buses lumbered away, the crowds cheered, yelled and waved their small American flags.
And, standing with his mother and grandparents near the road where the buses passed by, Cole Bladsacker searched for his father’s face in the buses’ windows, waved his small hand and said in a barely audible voice, “Bye, daddy.”
Ellie