thedrifter
04-06-03, 06:18 AM
Article ran : 04/06/2003
Military moms find strength, solace in numbers
By ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Kristina Hebel received a phone call the morning of March 26. Her caller ID read: “United States government.”
Hebel immediately panicked because her 26-year-old son, Camp Lejeune Marine Sgt. Steven Zakar, is in Iraq.
Since the start of the war, the sound of a car door slamming or phone ringing frightens many mothers who have sons or daughters in the Persian Gulf.
Hebel knew a call from the government couldn’t be good.
“I was hoping it wasn’t going to be tragic,” said Hebel, who lives in Bayville, N.J.
Her son, assigned to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment was wounded in a battle in Nasiriyah on March 25. Shrapnel hit his right leg and hip and his upper right arm.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t be horrible, and I was blessed,” Hebel said.
Now, her son is recovering on the USNS Comfort hospital ship. She received an e-mail from him Thursday.
“It was absolutely incredible,” she said. “There are no words to describe what I felt when I saw that e-mail.”
Hebel doesn’t know if her son will be sent back into battle. Her information is limited. Like many mothers, she will worry until her son returns home.
Virginia Beach of Jacksonville understands the stress of having a loved one at war. Her husband, a retired Marine chief warrant officer, was in the Gulf War.
Now, her son, Army Sgt. Tucker Beach, 27, is in Iraq.
It’s different this time.
“This is my baby,” she said.
She understood her role when she married her husband, who
already was a Marine.
“I was worried for my husband,” she said. “But I knew my job was to take care of the kids and the house. I had my job and the bills and the wives’ groups and all the activities teens do to keep me busy.”
But as a mom, she doesn’t have a military support system. When the news of casualties is too much to bear, help isn’t just a phone call away anymore.
“When my husband was there, I was involved in Key Volunteers,” she said. “We kept each other informed. There was a lot of support. I was having a down day, I could talk to anybody. They would even come over or we’d talk on the phone. I don’t have that now.”
She keeps her mind busy by working at Flowers on the Move, where she spends a lot of time making yellow ribbons.
“Sometimes other moms call who want to send flowers to their daughters-in-law who are here alone. Sometimes I get to talk to them and that helps,” she said. “Taking flowers out to them helps, and making yellow bows is helping.”
Linda Hardin of Panama City Beach, Fla., doesn’t have anyone nearby who understands what she is going through since her son, Marine Lance Cpl. George Toomer, deployed.
“It would be helpful if there was another mother around here like me that had a son over there,” she said.
She last heard from Toomer, assigned to the 2nd Force Service Support Group, the day after the war started.
Hardin pores over newspapers and Internet sites and watches TV every day, searching for her son.
“If you could just get a glimpse of them on TV or on the Internet somewhere, then you are reassured that they are still there today,” she said. “When the doorbell rings and phone rings, you hesitate. You’re afraid. You don’t know if it’s a call that you don’t want to have.”
This is the first time Karen Costa of Seattle hasn’t been able to keep tabs on her son, Lance Cpl. Steven Costa, assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.
“For most moms, this is the first time we really don’t know where our children are and have no resources, neighbors, friends, telephones to find them,” Costa said. “It’s a very helpless feeling.
“You wake up every morning to another Marine that was killed and your heart just stops,” she said.
Carolmartine Mason of Big Lake, Minn., keeps busy with five children at home, but her mind rarely strays far from her oldest child, Camp Lejeune Marine Cpl. Jeremiah Johnson of 2nd Transportation Support Battalion.
Her quiet time is often the most difficult, because that’s when she has time to think. She also uses the time to pray, and said that is helping her.
“We have so much faith that there isn’t a lot of apprehension,” she said.
She said she appreciates the letters she’s received from her son, but they all came before the war started.
“It’s wonderful getting letters,” she said. “But I want more. We want to know where he is.”
Sempers,
Roger
Military moms find strength, solace in numbers
By ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Kristina Hebel received a phone call the morning of March 26. Her caller ID read: “United States government.”
Hebel immediately panicked because her 26-year-old son, Camp Lejeune Marine Sgt. Steven Zakar, is in Iraq.
Since the start of the war, the sound of a car door slamming or phone ringing frightens many mothers who have sons or daughters in the Persian Gulf.
Hebel knew a call from the government couldn’t be good.
“I was hoping it wasn’t going to be tragic,” said Hebel, who lives in Bayville, N.J.
Her son, assigned to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment was wounded in a battle in Nasiriyah on March 25. Shrapnel hit his right leg and hip and his upper right arm.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t be horrible, and I was blessed,” Hebel said.
Now, her son is recovering on the USNS Comfort hospital ship. She received an e-mail from him Thursday.
“It was absolutely incredible,” she said. “There are no words to describe what I felt when I saw that e-mail.”
Hebel doesn’t know if her son will be sent back into battle. Her information is limited. Like many mothers, she will worry until her son returns home.
Virginia Beach of Jacksonville understands the stress of having a loved one at war. Her husband, a retired Marine chief warrant officer, was in the Gulf War.
Now, her son, Army Sgt. Tucker Beach, 27, is in Iraq.
It’s different this time.
“This is my baby,” she said.
She understood her role when she married her husband, who
already was a Marine.
“I was worried for my husband,” she said. “But I knew my job was to take care of the kids and the house. I had my job and the bills and the wives’ groups and all the activities teens do to keep me busy.”
But as a mom, she doesn’t have a military support system. When the news of casualties is too much to bear, help isn’t just a phone call away anymore.
“When my husband was there, I was involved in Key Volunteers,” she said. “We kept each other informed. There was a lot of support. I was having a down day, I could talk to anybody. They would even come over or we’d talk on the phone. I don’t have that now.”
She keeps her mind busy by working at Flowers on the Move, where she spends a lot of time making yellow ribbons.
“Sometimes other moms call who want to send flowers to their daughters-in-law who are here alone. Sometimes I get to talk to them and that helps,” she said. “Taking flowers out to them helps, and making yellow bows is helping.”
Linda Hardin of Panama City Beach, Fla., doesn’t have anyone nearby who understands what she is going through since her son, Marine Lance Cpl. George Toomer, deployed.
“It would be helpful if there was another mother around here like me that had a son over there,” she said.
She last heard from Toomer, assigned to the 2nd Force Service Support Group, the day after the war started.
Hardin pores over newspapers and Internet sites and watches TV every day, searching for her son.
“If you could just get a glimpse of them on TV or on the Internet somewhere, then you are reassured that they are still there today,” she said. “When the doorbell rings and phone rings, you hesitate. You’re afraid. You don’t know if it’s a call that you don’t want to have.”
This is the first time Karen Costa of Seattle hasn’t been able to keep tabs on her son, Lance Cpl. Steven Costa, assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.
“For most moms, this is the first time we really don’t know where our children are and have no resources, neighbors, friends, telephones to find them,” Costa said. “It’s a very helpless feeling.
“You wake up every morning to another Marine that was killed and your heart just stops,” she said.
Carolmartine Mason of Big Lake, Minn., keeps busy with five children at home, but her mind rarely strays far from her oldest child, Camp Lejeune Marine Cpl. Jeremiah Johnson of 2nd Transportation Support Battalion.
Her quiet time is often the most difficult, because that’s when she has time to think. She also uses the time to pray, and said that is helping her.
“We have so much faith that there isn’t a lot of apprehension,” she said.
She said she appreciates the letters she’s received from her son, but they all came before the war started.
“It’s wonderful getting letters,” she said. “But I want more. We want to know where he is.”
Sempers,
Roger