thedrifter
09-01-08, 09:06 AM
September 1, 2008
Parsippany Marine comes home to giving community
By Matt Manochio
Daily Record
PARSIPPANY -- Dana Black didn't talk of being a Marine when she was growing up. The 24-year-old envisioned a career as a police officer, maybe one day walking a beat like her father did for 30 years in Newark.
She took college courses for two years and decided to enter the military to help pay for the rest of her schooling. Her mother and father, John Black, an Air Force veteran, urged her to look at all the branches, and she did, opting for the most physically challenging one, the Marine Corps.
Black recently returned from Iraq after spending most of 2008 at the Habbaniyah Airbase training female Marines to properly inspect women entering key entry points in central Iraq, and her parents celebrated her return Sunday with friends and family at their Parsippany Boulevard home.
Many things helped both Black and her mother, Gale Black, endure her tour, and one of the biggest boosts stateside was her mom's friends pulling together and organizing care packages, dozens upon dozens of them, to go overseas to Dana and her fellow Marines.
Fellow Parsippany resident Marlena DeFillipps helped collect items from colleagues at Weichert Realtors in Mountain Lakes, while another friend, Robin Fitzgerald of Denville got the help of her 10-year-old son Conor's Riverview School teacher Cathy Benedict, and the school nurse, Risa Kallas, who both organized a drive within the building.
"You name it, whatever we could send over there, we did," said DeFillipps.
The didn't just collect items most needed by the Marines, like canned food, cookies, candy, personal hygiene products, DVDs, books, and sporting goods like footballs and Wiffle Ball sets, but they gathered money to pay for the pricey shipping to Iraq.
DeFillipps said five decent-sized boxes could cost $75 to mail overseas.
"It was absolutely incredible," Dana Black said. "It was like Christmas in Iraq. The one thing we looked forward to was mail call."
And it wasn't just Dana Black, who achieved the rank of corporal, who benefited from the kindness of strangers.
"She shared with everybody," DeFillipps said. "She would get all these packages and (some) kids got nothing."
DeFillipps estimated her office alone probably sent over around 30 packages.
Dana Black isn't quite done with the Marines. She returned to Camp Pendleton in San Diego in early August, and her obligation technically isn't up until November, when she'll return home and again pursue law enforcement.
Her parents and her two sisters all marvel at what the young woman accomplished.
She received the Iron Woman award when she graduated boot camp, meaning she bested every other female Marine and half of the male Marines in her class in several physical fitness categories, including crunches and running three miles in under 21 minutes.
"It was actually just a little bit over half," she said of besting her male counterparts. "It was a really cool feeling."
Black said she felt a sense of personal accomplishment training female Marines to become Military Police.
"If we didn't think they were fit for duty, we weren't sending them out there," she said.
She also on occasion went out into the field.
"I loved it, I loved going out and about away from the desk," she said.
Tara Black, 29, said she was deeply impressed by her sister's steadfastness.
"Me and Dana are both tough girls but in very different ways," Tara Black said. "I could never do what she did. I'm proud of her."
Her other sister, Gina Black, 37, agreed.
"She's a tough girl, and she's really strong," she said. "I think she's tougher than I realized."
Gina Black said that while her sister's tour is winding down, she hopes that Dana, for whatever the reason, won't be reactivated.
"I know if she does I'm glad she's our side," she said.
Ellie
Parsippany Marine comes home to giving community
By Matt Manochio
Daily Record
PARSIPPANY -- Dana Black didn't talk of being a Marine when she was growing up. The 24-year-old envisioned a career as a police officer, maybe one day walking a beat like her father did for 30 years in Newark.
She took college courses for two years and decided to enter the military to help pay for the rest of her schooling. Her mother and father, John Black, an Air Force veteran, urged her to look at all the branches, and she did, opting for the most physically challenging one, the Marine Corps.
Black recently returned from Iraq after spending most of 2008 at the Habbaniyah Airbase training female Marines to properly inspect women entering key entry points in central Iraq, and her parents celebrated her return Sunday with friends and family at their Parsippany Boulevard home.
Many things helped both Black and her mother, Gale Black, endure her tour, and one of the biggest boosts stateside was her mom's friends pulling together and organizing care packages, dozens upon dozens of them, to go overseas to Dana and her fellow Marines.
Fellow Parsippany resident Marlena DeFillipps helped collect items from colleagues at Weichert Realtors in Mountain Lakes, while another friend, Robin Fitzgerald of Denville got the help of her 10-year-old son Conor's Riverview School teacher Cathy Benedict, and the school nurse, Risa Kallas, who both organized a drive within the building.
"You name it, whatever we could send over there, we did," said DeFillipps.
The didn't just collect items most needed by the Marines, like canned food, cookies, candy, personal hygiene products, DVDs, books, and sporting goods like footballs and Wiffle Ball sets, but they gathered money to pay for the pricey shipping to Iraq.
DeFillipps said five decent-sized boxes could cost $75 to mail overseas.
"It was absolutely incredible," Dana Black said. "It was like Christmas in Iraq. The one thing we looked forward to was mail call."
And it wasn't just Dana Black, who achieved the rank of corporal, who benefited from the kindness of strangers.
"She shared with everybody," DeFillipps said. "She would get all these packages and (some) kids got nothing."
DeFillipps estimated her office alone probably sent over around 30 packages.
Dana Black isn't quite done with the Marines. She returned to Camp Pendleton in San Diego in early August, and her obligation technically isn't up until November, when she'll return home and again pursue law enforcement.
Her parents and her two sisters all marvel at what the young woman accomplished.
She received the Iron Woman award when she graduated boot camp, meaning she bested every other female Marine and half of the male Marines in her class in several physical fitness categories, including crunches and running three miles in under 21 minutes.
"It was actually just a little bit over half," she said of besting her male counterparts. "It was a really cool feeling."
Black said she felt a sense of personal accomplishment training female Marines to become Military Police.
"If we didn't think they were fit for duty, we weren't sending them out there," she said.
She also on occasion went out into the field.
"I loved it, I loved going out and about away from the desk," she said.
Tara Black, 29, said she was deeply impressed by her sister's steadfastness.
"Me and Dana are both tough girls but in very different ways," Tara Black said. "I could never do what she did. I'm proud of her."
Her other sister, Gina Black, 37, agreed.
"She's a tough girl, and she's really strong," she said. "I think she's tougher than I realized."
Gina Black said that while her sister's tour is winding down, she hopes that Dana, for whatever the reason, won't be reactivated.
"I know if she does I'm glad she's our side," she said.
Ellie