thedrifter
07-12-07, 03:33 PM
Jul 11, 2007
Marine's tour in Iraq leaves everyone changed
By GEOFF FOX
gfox@tampatrib.com
HUDSON — Tom Castriota didn’t realize he had made a difference.
Called to active duty in December by the Marine Corps., Lt. Col. Castriota recently spent six months in Iraq, where he experienced the earth-rattling power of incoming mortars almost as routinely as he worked shifts from sunrise until long after dark.
As a liaison officer with Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, his daily routine involved working alongside high-ranking generals such as Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who told Congress in June that it probably will be years before Iraq can handle its own security, and Gen. David Petraeus, in charge of U.S. forces trying to restore order in Iraq.
Castriota, 53, who owns a Chevrolet dealership on U.S. 19 in Hudson, attended strategic briefings, but he didn’t have to patrol the streets of Baghdad like many younger Marines and soldiers. So he said he was unprepared for the thanks he received upon leaving Iraq last month for MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
“I didn’t realize I’d made such an impact,” he said. “Everyone takes away something different, but the two generals I worked with said, ‘Why are you leaving now? You helped so much.’
“I didn’t realize I did anything (except) what I was asked to do. You don’t know you’ve had an impact until they tell you.”
For Castriota, it was high praise, considering his respect for the leaders.
“Gen. Petraeus is probably our best general to run this campaign,” he said. “When you talk about insurgency and rebuilding a country, the man is a great leader. He understands how we fight and how they fight and what it takes to build Iraq. He’s a smart man with a lot of common sense.
“He knows what to do militarily and what the country has to do to build the economy and the infrastructure you need to build the sewers and water plants. I think you’ll see some results coming in the next six months. He knows it won’t take 60 days; it’s a long-term” endeavor.
A native of Pennsylvania, where he also owns a Chevrolet dealership in Pittsburgh, Castriota was commissioned into the Marines in 1975 and served on active duty for three years before entering the reserves through 2000.
Tense times for family
He volunteered again after the Sept. 11 attacks. For years, Castriota didn’t get the answer he wanted.
Finally, on Oct. 28, he received an e-mail advising him to report Nov. 1.
Anita, his wife of 24 years, said knowing that he would be gone for months wasn’t easy for the family, including Alex, 20, a sophomore at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Chrissy, 17, a senior at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa.
“My son was pretty much not believing it, like, ‘You’re kidding me,’” Anita said. “I don’t know that he ever really accepted it. My daughter was extremely affected. She’s used to living with him on a daily basis. Tom and Chrissy are very close. She was not understanding the need to leave.
“She respected his desire, but she looked at it as a choice that he made, and she didn’t understand.”
Although Castriota wasn’t patrolling the streets of Baghdad, his presence in a war zone was often reinforced when he called home.
“One of the worst things they do is let the family talk to them,” Anita Castriota said. “You talk to them, and you can hear bombs and bullets in the background. More than four times, he said, ‘I have to go find a bunker.’
“And you didn’t have to ask why. Then you wouldn’t hear from him for two or three days. You e-mail, and there’s no response. He was just busy.”
During those times, she said, the family often was glued to news reports from Iraq.
“But the news was a double-edged sword,” she said. “You want to see it and make sure everything’s OK, but you would cringe at what you would hear and see.”
For Tom Castriota, missing family and finding bunkers were just some of the adjustments he had to make upon arriving in Iraq.
One of the hardest things, he said, was adapting to his new job.
“If you stop to think about what you’re doing, you realize it has ramifications and can affect someone’s life and the expenditure of American tax dollars,” he said. “You’re in a combat environment, and you don’t want to mess that up.”
Support at home crucial
While military personnel now enjoy the kind of communication with family that earlier generations could only have imagined, Castriota said it is still important for overseas troops to believe they are supported at home.
Morale rises, he said, when troops receive care packages of candy, toothbrushes, toothpaste, books, playing cards and other items.
“In January, our (base) chaplain received 4,000 pounds of donated items to distribute,” he said. “It was always great to get stuff and realize what people do to support the troops.”
Castriota said he probably will be stationed at MacDill for the next couple of months before again retiring from the military.
At MacDill, he works with U.S. Central Command.
“Centcom doesn’t fight the war,” he said. “I work for Marine command, responsible for Marines in theater, whether they’re in Afghanis-tan or Africa. It’s a little different. We take requests from theaters; if they need certain equipment and other things. I assist in that process.”
Castriota said he is often asked about his experiences in Iraq, and he doesn’t anticipate that the questions will stop when his tour ends. He often tells people about the dedication and selfless attitudes displayed by younger troops.
“You see young soldiers and Marines wounded, and they’re not necessarily worried about themselves,” he said. “They’re worried about their comrades, asking, ‘Did I lose anybody?’
“One situation that sticks out is when several Marines came into the hospital area with some serious wounds. They were coming in or going out of surgery, and we all went in to see them. They’re 18 to 25, and they’re not worried about their wounds, but what happened to their squad leader or lance corporal.”
Terrorism: ‘It’s There’
Besides his own experiences, Castriota said there is something all Americans should understand about the war.
“There are people out there who just want to do us harm; there’s no rationalizing it,” he said. “There are just groups out there who want to change our way of life because it doesn’t fit their way of life.
“Whether we agree with the president or the political process, it comes down to terrorism, and it’s there.”
Anita Castriota said her husband probably will be back at work in September. She is running the family business in his absence.
In the meantime, he can come home a couple of times a week.
“It’s been an adjustment for him coming back to civilian life and an adjustment for us because he’s not the same as when he left,” she said.
“He has a much deeper appreciation for what’s important. He has a lot less tolerance for people who argue about minuscule things.”
Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at 813-948-4217.
Ellie
Marine's tour in Iraq leaves everyone changed
By GEOFF FOX
gfox@tampatrib.com
HUDSON — Tom Castriota didn’t realize he had made a difference.
Called to active duty in December by the Marine Corps., Lt. Col. Castriota recently spent six months in Iraq, where he experienced the earth-rattling power of incoming mortars almost as routinely as he worked shifts from sunrise until long after dark.
As a liaison officer with Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, his daily routine involved working alongside high-ranking generals such as Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who told Congress in June that it probably will be years before Iraq can handle its own security, and Gen. David Petraeus, in charge of U.S. forces trying to restore order in Iraq.
Castriota, 53, who owns a Chevrolet dealership on U.S. 19 in Hudson, attended strategic briefings, but he didn’t have to patrol the streets of Baghdad like many younger Marines and soldiers. So he said he was unprepared for the thanks he received upon leaving Iraq last month for MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
“I didn’t realize I’d made such an impact,” he said. “Everyone takes away something different, but the two generals I worked with said, ‘Why are you leaving now? You helped so much.’
“I didn’t realize I did anything (except) what I was asked to do. You don’t know you’ve had an impact until they tell you.”
For Castriota, it was high praise, considering his respect for the leaders.
“Gen. Petraeus is probably our best general to run this campaign,” he said. “When you talk about insurgency and rebuilding a country, the man is a great leader. He understands how we fight and how they fight and what it takes to build Iraq. He’s a smart man with a lot of common sense.
“He knows what to do militarily and what the country has to do to build the economy and the infrastructure you need to build the sewers and water plants. I think you’ll see some results coming in the next six months. He knows it won’t take 60 days; it’s a long-term” endeavor.
A native of Pennsylvania, where he also owns a Chevrolet dealership in Pittsburgh, Castriota was commissioned into the Marines in 1975 and served on active duty for three years before entering the reserves through 2000.
Tense times for family
He volunteered again after the Sept. 11 attacks. For years, Castriota didn’t get the answer he wanted.
Finally, on Oct. 28, he received an e-mail advising him to report Nov. 1.
Anita, his wife of 24 years, said knowing that he would be gone for months wasn’t easy for the family, including Alex, 20, a sophomore at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Chrissy, 17, a senior at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa.
“My son was pretty much not believing it, like, ‘You’re kidding me,’” Anita said. “I don’t know that he ever really accepted it. My daughter was extremely affected. She’s used to living with him on a daily basis. Tom and Chrissy are very close. She was not understanding the need to leave.
“She respected his desire, but she looked at it as a choice that he made, and she didn’t understand.”
Although Castriota wasn’t patrolling the streets of Baghdad, his presence in a war zone was often reinforced when he called home.
“One of the worst things they do is let the family talk to them,” Anita Castriota said. “You talk to them, and you can hear bombs and bullets in the background. More than four times, he said, ‘I have to go find a bunker.’
“And you didn’t have to ask why. Then you wouldn’t hear from him for two or three days. You e-mail, and there’s no response. He was just busy.”
During those times, she said, the family often was glued to news reports from Iraq.
“But the news was a double-edged sword,” she said. “You want to see it and make sure everything’s OK, but you would cringe at what you would hear and see.”
For Tom Castriota, missing family and finding bunkers were just some of the adjustments he had to make upon arriving in Iraq.
One of the hardest things, he said, was adapting to his new job.
“If you stop to think about what you’re doing, you realize it has ramifications and can affect someone’s life and the expenditure of American tax dollars,” he said. “You’re in a combat environment, and you don’t want to mess that up.”
Support at home crucial
While military personnel now enjoy the kind of communication with family that earlier generations could only have imagined, Castriota said it is still important for overseas troops to believe they are supported at home.
Morale rises, he said, when troops receive care packages of candy, toothbrushes, toothpaste, books, playing cards and other items.
“In January, our (base) chaplain received 4,000 pounds of donated items to distribute,” he said. “It was always great to get stuff and realize what people do to support the troops.”
Castriota said he probably will be stationed at MacDill for the next couple of months before again retiring from the military.
At MacDill, he works with U.S. Central Command.
“Centcom doesn’t fight the war,” he said. “I work for Marine command, responsible for Marines in theater, whether they’re in Afghanis-tan or Africa. It’s a little different. We take requests from theaters; if they need certain equipment and other things. I assist in that process.”
Castriota said he is often asked about his experiences in Iraq, and he doesn’t anticipate that the questions will stop when his tour ends. He often tells people about the dedication and selfless attitudes displayed by younger troops.
“You see young soldiers and Marines wounded, and they’re not necessarily worried about themselves,” he said. “They’re worried about their comrades, asking, ‘Did I lose anybody?’
“One situation that sticks out is when several Marines came into the hospital area with some serious wounds. They were coming in or going out of surgery, and we all went in to see them. They’re 18 to 25, and they’re not worried about their wounds, but what happened to their squad leader or lance corporal.”
Terrorism: ‘It’s There’
Besides his own experiences, Castriota said there is something all Americans should understand about the war.
“There are people out there who just want to do us harm; there’s no rationalizing it,” he said. “There are just groups out there who want to change our way of life because it doesn’t fit their way of life.
“Whether we agree with the president or the political process, it comes down to terrorism, and it’s there.”
Anita Castriota said her husband probably will be back at work in September. She is running the family business in his absence.
In the meantime, he can come home a couple of times a week.
“It’s been an adjustment for him coming back to civilian life and an adjustment for us because he’s not the same as when he left,” she said.
“He has a much deeper appreciation for what’s important. He has a lot less tolerance for people who argue about minuscule things.”
Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at 813-948-4217.
Ellie