thedrifter
06-22-07, 06:35 AM
June 22, 2007
Strain of war hits home
2 Monroe families ride emotional roller coaster
Ernst Lamothe Jr.
Staff writer
In the Kornacki household, there are very few pictures of sailor James Patrick Lally hanging on the walls or placed on tabletops.
The sight of the blond, blue-eyed Navy sailor is too much for his 6-year-old stepbrother, Chris Kornacki.
"Every time he would see a picture, he would just bust up and start crying," said Angelina Kornacki of Henrietta, their mother.
"I miss him when he leaves, and it makes me feel sad," said Chris.
That's the unfortunate reality for scores of local families. Tears of joy greet members of the military on their visits home, but they are followed by tears of sadness when soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have to go back.
More than 3,800 military personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since fighting began a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In recent weeks, 60 soldiers in a Chili-based reserve unit left, ultimately bound for combat in Afghanistan. Thirty-five other members of the U.S. Army Reserve's 401st Civil Affairs Battalion, based in Webster, flew to Fort Bragg, N.C., this month before an expected nine-month stint in Iraq.
Lally, 20, enlisted in the Navy two years ago, wanting to serve his country after seeing images of the terrorist attacks. He had been a freshman at Rush-Henrietta High School in 2001.
In September 2006, he stepped onto the USS Ashland, a ship that 13 months earlier was almost hit by three rockets while at a Jordanian port.
Life on the 160-foot ship has its challenges. There are two dryers for 350 sailors, only a few computers to e-mail loved ones, cramped living quarters and sometimes bottled water showers are necessary because of water problems on the ship. But there is always a Playstation 2 with a Madden football disc with which to unwind, and sailors do get to see the world. Stops include Spain and Greece.
In January 2007, the warship traveled four miles off the coast of Somalia to conduct anti-terrorist operations for six months. It has also been to the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Lally, who is now based at Little Creek, Va., will be deployed again in February for a seven-month stint.
"It's your job to be at sea, so I'm not scared going back," said Lally, who still has 4½ years left of active duty.
"This is what I signed up for. But being away also helps you appreciate how great living in the United States can be."
His stepfather, Shawn Kornacki, said the military is a wonderful steppingstone to a solid education and a well-paying government job. His mother, Angelina, thinks the world is too dangerous right now to take a risk, especially with the family back home worried.
"I definitely don't want him to re-enlist when he's done in August 2011," she said. "I knew he wouldn't be scared, but it's tough not hearing his voice, not knowing where he is every night, or if he is safe.
Lally has accumulated 48 college credits on his way to becoming an engineering technician after the military. However, for the first time, he spent his Dec. 10 birthday and Christmas without being able to hug his mother or throw a spiral Nerf football into the waiting arms of Chris.
"It's difficult hearing that my younger brother is having such a hard time dealing with me being away and I can't do anything about it," said Lally.
"I hear stories of guys talking about the wives and little babies they are leaving behind to fight, and I think it would be too hard for me to do that. It's hard dealing with the fact that when I'm out of the Navy, Chris is going to be at the end of middle school."
The family celebrated Thanksgiving, Lally's birthday and Christmas Eve during his 10-day visit back to Henrietta in early June. They dined on flounder, shrimp, spaghetti with olive oil, chicken parmesan and other Italian dishes.
Finish line
Unlike Lally, Jordan Henderson will end his military involvement in September.
Jean Henderson, his mother, remembers the morning of Sept. 23, 2003, when she woke up her son, asked him if he was "ready to accelerate your life," which is a Navy slogan and then dropped him off at a Greece recruiting office before boot camp.
"It was so hard to let go. I went to Subway afterward, and I cried because Jordan would always eat my leftovers," said his mother. "Our faith gets us through the hard times. We just support him along the way and we enjoy hugging him when we can."
Henderson, 23, said many days at the Norfolk, Va., naval base melt together because of his overly structured life, with a slight break of class time that also proves a challenge in another respect. Henderson wants to become a firefighter after his service.
Taking classes on the ship is akin to taking a final exam on the runway of an airport. Jets launch over the ship's deck, and several daily announcements bellow through speakers, making for a deafening study hour.
He saw his first tour of duty in October 2006 during an eight-month stint in the Persian Gulf. But when he wants to keep war out of his mind, a deck of cards for spades or going to the gym six times a week does the job.
"You've got to put together new goals to keep yourself moving forward and not think about what you are missing back home," said Henderson, a petty officer third class and a 2003 graduate of Greece Athena High School.
"For me," he said, "I had to improve my body and lose my stomach so I could tone up for the summer."
When Henderson was navigating through the difficult waters of missing his family, hearing that his dog had died and swallowing the same white rice and chicken for days, his rejuvenation arrived from a plane bearing care packages and letters. A first-grade class from Paddy Hill Elementary in Greece sent letters, toothpaste and magazines.
"It just made me smile that kids who had never met me before were writing such wonderful things," said Henderson. "That keeps us all motivated, waiting for the days we get something from home. Being away and having to call family on Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's and hearing everyone having fun in the background is hard."
Both Lally and Henderson said it felt awkward for the first few days on leave, getting used to family and civilian life, which doesn't start at 5 a.m. and doesn't involve wearing a standard blue or white uniform and bell bottom pants.
"You spend so much time wishing you could just go home, and then when you are home, you don't know how to take it all in," said Jordan. "Everything is changing and people are changing around you, and it's not easy to get back to the civilian world."
Lally agreed. He spent his time planting flowers, mowing the lawn and playing with the toy that has no age limit: Legos.
Henderson said he will miss the mixing bowl of personalities and cultures when he leaves the Navy. He'll miss offering protection for the troops along with remembering the architecture and the Roman Coliseum from a trip to Italy. He'll miss the camel rides along a dusty desert or the ship rocking him to sleep, and he'll even reminisce fondly about his day job of filtering and purifying fuel for ships and aircraft.
"I describe the experience as the most stressful, frightful, beautiful and amazing time of my life," said Henderson. "People here in the U.S. take for granted that there are people overseas dying and fighting for them.
"And they are leaving their families and children behind. I respect the people I served with and it's going to be hard to leave, but I'll be happy to be home."
ELAMOTHE@DemocratandChronicle.com
Ellie
Strain of war hits home
2 Monroe families ride emotional roller coaster
Ernst Lamothe Jr.
Staff writer
In the Kornacki household, there are very few pictures of sailor James Patrick Lally hanging on the walls or placed on tabletops.
The sight of the blond, blue-eyed Navy sailor is too much for his 6-year-old stepbrother, Chris Kornacki.
"Every time he would see a picture, he would just bust up and start crying," said Angelina Kornacki of Henrietta, their mother.
"I miss him when he leaves, and it makes me feel sad," said Chris.
That's the unfortunate reality for scores of local families. Tears of joy greet members of the military on their visits home, but they are followed by tears of sadness when soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have to go back.
More than 3,800 military personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since fighting began a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In recent weeks, 60 soldiers in a Chili-based reserve unit left, ultimately bound for combat in Afghanistan. Thirty-five other members of the U.S. Army Reserve's 401st Civil Affairs Battalion, based in Webster, flew to Fort Bragg, N.C., this month before an expected nine-month stint in Iraq.
Lally, 20, enlisted in the Navy two years ago, wanting to serve his country after seeing images of the terrorist attacks. He had been a freshman at Rush-Henrietta High School in 2001.
In September 2006, he stepped onto the USS Ashland, a ship that 13 months earlier was almost hit by three rockets while at a Jordanian port.
Life on the 160-foot ship has its challenges. There are two dryers for 350 sailors, only a few computers to e-mail loved ones, cramped living quarters and sometimes bottled water showers are necessary because of water problems on the ship. But there is always a Playstation 2 with a Madden football disc with which to unwind, and sailors do get to see the world. Stops include Spain and Greece.
In January 2007, the warship traveled four miles off the coast of Somalia to conduct anti-terrorist operations for six months. It has also been to the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Lally, who is now based at Little Creek, Va., will be deployed again in February for a seven-month stint.
"It's your job to be at sea, so I'm not scared going back," said Lally, who still has 4½ years left of active duty.
"This is what I signed up for. But being away also helps you appreciate how great living in the United States can be."
His stepfather, Shawn Kornacki, said the military is a wonderful steppingstone to a solid education and a well-paying government job. His mother, Angelina, thinks the world is too dangerous right now to take a risk, especially with the family back home worried.
"I definitely don't want him to re-enlist when he's done in August 2011," she said. "I knew he wouldn't be scared, but it's tough not hearing his voice, not knowing where he is every night, or if he is safe.
Lally has accumulated 48 college credits on his way to becoming an engineering technician after the military. However, for the first time, he spent his Dec. 10 birthday and Christmas without being able to hug his mother or throw a spiral Nerf football into the waiting arms of Chris.
"It's difficult hearing that my younger brother is having such a hard time dealing with me being away and I can't do anything about it," said Lally.
"I hear stories of guys talking about the wives and little babies they are leaving behind to fight, and I think it would be too hard for me to do that. It's hard dealing with the fact that when I'm out of the Navy, Chris is going to be at the end of middle school."
The family celebrated Thanksgiving, Lally's birthday and Christmas Eve during his 10-day visit back to Henrietta in early June. They dined on flounder, shrimp, spaghetti with olive oil, chicken parmesan and other Italian dishes.
Finish line
Unlike Lally, Jordan Henderson will end his military involvement in September.
Jean Henderson, his mother, remembers the morning of Sept. 23, 2003, when she woke up her son, asked him if he was "ready to accelerate your life," which is a Navy slogan and then dropped him off at a Greece recruiting office before boot camp.
"It was so hard to let go. I went to Subway afterward, and I cried because Jordan would always eat my leftovers," said his mother. "Our faith gets us through the hard times. We just support him along the way and we enjoy hugging him when we can."
Henderson, 23, said many days at the Norfolk, Va., naval base melt together because of his overly structured life, with a slight break of class time that also proves a challenge in another respect. Henderson wants to become a firefighter after his service.
Taking classes on the ship is akin to taking a final exam on the runway of an airport. Jets launch over the ship's deck, and several daily announcements bellow through speakers, making for a deafening study hour.
He saw his first tour of duty in October 2006 during an eight-month stint in the Persian Gulf. But when he wants to keep war out of his mind, a deck of cards for spades or going to the gym six times a week does the job.
"You've got to put together new goals to keep yourself moving forward and not think about what you are missing back home," said Henderson, a petty officer third class and a 2003 graduate of Greece Athena High School.
"For me," he said, "I had to improve my body and lose my stomach so I could tone up for the summer."
When Henderson was navigating through the difficult waters of missing his family, hearing that his dog had died and swallowing the same white rice and chicken for days, his rejuvenation arrived from a plane bearing care packages and letters. A first-grade class from Paddy Hill Elementary in Greece sent letters, toothpaste and magazines.
"It just made me smile that kids who had never met me before were writing such wonderful things," said Henderson. "That keeps us all motivated, waiting for the days we get something from home. Being away and having to call family on Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's and hearing everyone having fun in the background is hard."
Both Lally and Henderson said it felt awkward for the first few days on leave, getting used to family and civilian life, which doesn't start at 5 a.m. and doesn't involve wearing a standard blue or white uniform and bell bottom pants.
"You spend so much time wishing you could just go home, and then when you are home, you don't know how to take it all in," said Jordan. "Everything is changing and people are changing around you, and it's not easy to get back to the civilian world."
Lally agreed. He spent his time planting flowers, mowing the lawn and playing with the toy that has no age limit: Legos.
Henderson said he will miss the mixing bowl of personalities and cultures when he leaves the Navy. He'll miss offering protection for the troops along with remembering the architecture and the Roman Coliseum from a trip to Italy. He'll miss the camel rides along a dusty desert or the ship rocking him to sleep, and he'll even reminisce fondly about his day job of filtering and purifying fuel for ships and aircraft.
"I describe the experience as the most stressful, frightful, beautiful and amazing time of my life," said Henderson. "People here in the U.S. take for granted that there are people overseas dying and fighting for them.
"And they are leaving their families and children behind. I respect the people I served with and it's going to be hard to leave, but I'll be happy to be home."
ELAMOTHE@DemocratandChronicle.com
Ellie