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thedrifter
05-29-03, 06:40 AM
Homecoming is joyous, even for single Marines

Family, friends greet triumphant troops

By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 28, 2003


CAMP PENDLETON – Lance Cpl. Aaron Merrill watched the last moments of yesterday's reunion here as the men of Delta Company moved off in the arms of loved ones they hadn't seen since January, when their unit went to war.

Single, with relatives far away, Merrill had nobody waiting for him.

Still, he was happy to be with his platoon buddy, Lance Cpl. Bryce Gurganus. The two friends being together seemed enough.

"We're our own family," Gurganus said, chasing down a bag of Cheetos with a beer.

After surviving the war in Iraq, Merrill, Gurganus and the rest of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion were overjoyed to be home and ready for the rest of their lives.

The unit, about 800 strong, fought from Kuwait into Iraq, across the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and into Baghdad. Its Marines were the first American forces to reach Tikrit, taking over one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces.

For part of that journey, they were accompanied by two Union-Tribune staff members, part of the embedded force of journalists who covered the war at troop level.

The battalion, equipped with gun-and rocket-equipped armored vehicles, left San Diego on Jan. 17 aboard amphibious ships. After arriving in Kuwait in late February, the unit spent three weeks camped in the northern Kuwaiti desert until the war started.

Yesterday, much of the unit arrived home aboard jetliners at March Air Reserve Base near Riverside and rode to their Camp Pendleton headquarters on buses to a throng of spouses, relatives, friends and well-wishers.

Many pulled open the bus windows, waving their hands or small American flags as they drove past the hundreds who had waited for hours.

Lt. Col. Duffy White, the battalion commanding officer, said the reunion was bittersweet because one battalion member, Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, didn't return.

Saurez died from wounds suffered when he stepped on a U.S. military cluster bomblet in central Iraq March 27.

"Our goal was to accomplish every mission assigned and not lose any Marines. We didn't do it," he said, shaking his head.

"I would have liked to bring them all back but it was war," he added.

Many Marines, with reunited children attached like Velcro to their legs or shoulders, eschewed free hot dogs and soda to slip off to cozier homecomings, on or off base.

For the single Marines without family present, the homecoming was no less joyous.

At the barracks, Merrill was savoring his first beer after spending months in Kuwait and Iraq.

"It's the best beer I've ever had," he remarked, as fellow Marines nodded in agreement.

Like many who fought in Iraq, Merrill has been thinking a lot about life after the war.

He acknowledged that the war has changed him.

"It's definitely made me realize that we live in the greatest nation, and we take it for granted," he said.

He plans to visit Arlington National Cemetery, the Iwo Jima and Vietnam memorials, Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and New Mexico.

"I want to see some pretty places for once," Merrill added.

Getting off the plane from Kuwait sent a rush of emotions through Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Taylor, a Navy corpsman.

"I felt different," he said. "It's a big culture shock. I was in a land where people are laying on the ground, bleeding, hungry and begging for money.

"Now, I'm back here. . . . It will take time to get used to this again," said Taylor, who was met by his wife, Griselda, and 1-year-old son Elijah.

Lance Cpl. Dan Childers, who just five weeks ago was patrolling the streets of Tikrit, said he couldn't help being changed by the experience.

"It changed my outlook on life," he said. "It made be grow up. I don't take things for granted anymore."

Several Marines are thinking about life outside the Corps.

After he gets out of the Marines in November 2004, Merrill plans to attend college, he said. Then he wants to become a firefighter or FBI agent – "Anything but a desk job."

Several are contemplating college or careers in law enforcement.

Many are staying in the service.

Cpl. Bryon Hightower plans to re-enlist and stay 20 years until retirement.

"If I've already spent 41/2 years in, another 15 won't hurt me . . . not after this," he said.

The future also was on the minds of wives waiting for their husbands.

"I can't even explain how many fears I have," said Jennifer Enders as she and 6-year-old daughter Alyssa waited for Lance Cpl. Randy Enders.

"You know they're changed, and I've changed."

After greeting his wife, Autumn, and children Dustin and Alyssa, Sgt. Michael McLeod said readjusting to life back in the United States will take time.

"Being over there (in Iraq) I was quick-tempered," McLeod said, adding that he has to remember that he's back home.

"I'm not there dealing with the other side of life," he added. "It's going to take time and patience on both sides."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James W. Crawley:
(619) 542-4559; jim.crawley@uniontrib.com


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/images/030528lav.jpg

DON KOHLBAURER / Union-Tribune
Marines from the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion wave to onlookers as they arrive at Camp Pendleton. The unit's forces were the first Americans to reach Tikrit, Iraq.



Sempers,

Roger