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View Full Version : Keeping the faith amid the heat, casualties and critters



thedrifter
04-18-03, 08:10 PM
Military families have been heartened by letters and e-mail sent by their loved ones deployed in the Persian Gulf. Navy Lt. Jonathan Bankoff has been sharing his experiences not only with his family, but also with readers of his hometown newspaper. USA TODAY's Tracey Wong Briggs talked to his mother.

The son and grandson of physicians, Jonathan Bankoff won a Navy scholarship to pay for medical school. Three years after graduating from Creighton Medical School in Nebraska, Bankoff, 28, finds himself overseeing 12 Navy corpsmen tending to the Marines at Camp Fox in Kuwait.

"He loves the Navy, loves the Marines. He thinks they're some of the finest men and women he has ever met," says his mother, Billie Bankoff of South Bend, Ind.

Her son, who plans to do his emergency medicine residency at Chicago's Cook County Hospital next year, has had to deal with sandstorms to Scud missile warnings in Kuwait. He has written dozens of e-mail messages to his wife, Heather, a fourth-grade teacher in North Carolina, and to other relatives and friends. He also has written dispatches that have been published in the South Bend Tribune.

"It's very good therapy for him. It obviously helps him to get his thoughts on paper," Billie says. "This is his way of coping."

Excerpts from his e-mail:

March 29

Now it's personal.

Nothing raises the blood and bile faster than an attack on a loved one. Up until yesterday morning, this war had not directly affected me. The names that I had been reading daily on the classified casualty report had no faces. They were fellow servicemen and women, even Navy corpsmen, but I personally never knew them or anything about them.

An e-mail that I received from my wife yesterday changed all of that. She was frantic and scared, and all she could tell me was that "Jimmy has been wounded."

Jimmy is a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, assigned most recently as a platoon commander attached to a Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

More importantly, Jimmy and his family have been close friends with my wife and her family for over 25 years. ... I learned that Jimmy had taken shrapnel to both arms and legs, but was in stable condition.

Jimmy being wounded has brought this war home to me. It has reminded me of all the other friends I have out here, doctors and corpsmen in particular, who are currently in harm's way.

April 2

The liberation of Baghdad began this morning. Word passed through camp like gossip through a middle school. Marines at the morning chow tables cheered as the TV showed images of daisy cutters destroying their targets and American boots crossing the Tigris. The news got even better as the story broke about the Special Ops rescue of an American POW from an Iraqi hospital. Marines were smiling and laughing, not something you see or hear too often out here.

The mood was tempered, however, by the uncertainty that lay ahead. How long will the fight to liberate Baghdad last? Will chemical weapons be used? Will we have to go door-to-door through the streets to win this war?

April 6

Now I know what the inside of a hair dryer feels like. ... The mercury screamed above the 100-degree mark for the third straight day today. What I wouldn't give for a gentle ocean breeze, a hammock, and an ice-cold Corona.

We also had our first Medevacs this past week. A Marine corporal dislocated his shoulder lifting heavy equipment and a Navy Seabee sustained shrapnel wounds from unexploded ordnance.

These two mishaps have left me with mixed emotions. ... While I am pleased with the medical care that these two young men received ... I would be lying if I didn't say that part of me was jealous as well.

Jealous that these troops were going home to their families. Jealous that they no longer had to deal with the heat, or the critters, or the monotony. Jealous that their lives would soon return to normal.

The fleeting thoughts of jealousy, however, were quickly replaced by a sense of obligation and duty. My troops and my colonel need me here to help keep them healthy and safe.

April 10

The pictures are inspiring. Iraqi men, women, and children roaming the streets, cheering and denouncing their ousted dictator.

Marines here at Fox are excited. Some talk about going north to assist in humanitarian missions. Others anxiously discuss going home and seeing their families. They aren't complaining as much about the heat, or the food, or the port-a-johns.

The difficult part now for officers and section heads is to keep the troops focused on the mission. Although the combat phase of this campaign may soon be over, the logistical and humanitarian phase is just beginning. ... I anticipate being here through the summer, but am holding out hope that I will be home in time to see the Irish home opener. ... Only time will tell.

Semper Fidelis

— Navy Lt. Jonathan Bankoff, assigned to the 8th Communications Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2003/04-17-writing-inside.jpg

A close shave helps Navy Lt. Jonathan Bankoff beat the heat. But he'd really like an "ocean breeze, a hammock and an ice-cold Corona."


Sempers,

Roger