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thedrifter
05-30-03, 06:38 AM
Marine Corps' only reserve battalion to fight Iraq war comes home


By Catherine Ivey
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:44 p.m., May 29, 2003

CAMP PENDLETON – The left their jobs and families to travel miles along the hot, dusty roads of Iraq, exchange gunfire with Saddam Hussein's troops, and help secure Baghdad.

On Thursday, nearly 300 members of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines – the Marine Corps' only reserve battalion to see combat in the war against Iraq – returned home to spouses, children and the lives they left behind.

"It's going to be really awkward for some of these guys to go back to their jobs. You haven't been there in a year and a half," said Maj. Nick Staley, a 34-year-old San Diegan who will return to his job as a manager in a mail-order catalogue company.

"In the civilian world you don't get orders to mobilize. You don't get orders to go to Kuwait," Staley said. "It was stressful. It was combat."

The battalion of about 900 Marines was called to duty 15 months ago from their homes across the western United States. They spent a year at Camp Pendleton training and providing Homeland Security support. They deployed to Kuwait in February, drove into Iraq in March and entered Baghdad in early April in time to help secure the city and witness the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

In the Iraqi capital, they saw fierce firefights and dodged mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades. In southern Iraq, they helped rescue another Marine unit that was ambushed.

About 40 of them were wounded. One member, Staff Sgt. James Cawley, a 41-year-old Salt Lake City police officer from Layton, Utah, was killed on March 29 when he was struck by a coalition Humvee as he sought safety from enemy fire.

"It was very tiresome and chaotic and scary. Luckily our training always kicked in," said Lance Cpl. Fred Calonico, a 23-year-old college student from Novato. "I think it showed we were prepared. (Reservists) are always the ones who have something to prove. But we showed we could do what we were called up to do."

On Thursday, families and friends gathered on a football field at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, where they picnicked on blankets, tossed Frisbees and ate hot dogs while waiting for the Marines to arrive on buses.

The troops flew from Kuwait on a commercial charter flight and landed at March Air Force Base in Riverside. Another 600 members of the battalion were to fly home overnight and early Friday.

The first wave of Marines to return home included reservists from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and throughout California.

"I missed everything we take for granted here – food, a washer and dryer, clean clothes, showers," said Lance Cpl. Mike Pallotto, a 23-year-old pharmacy worker from Camarillo.

Melanie Lawrence, 42, drove 13 hours from Perry, Utah, to welcome home her son, Lance Cpl. Adam Smith, a 21-year-old college student. During his deployment, she kept in touch with her son through letters, which she kept on her kitchen counter and referred to often for comfort.

"Sometimes I had to just turn off the television because it was just more than I could handle," Lawrence said of the war coverage. She said her husband helped distract her from her worries by urging her to make "welcome home" signs, like the huge banner that awaits Smith on the family's garage door.

Debbie Calarco, 45, of Las Vegas, hugged her son Lance Cpl. Michael Calarco, a police cadet, and ended three months of nervous worrying.

"It's been tortuous. I was nervous that he wasn't going to come home OK. But it was so wonderful to see him. He looked so good," she said.

For the Taylor family of American Fork, Utah, the anticipation of waiting for Cpl. Brian Taylor to come home was almost too much. Given four days notice that his battalion was returning, no one in the family slept much.

"I haven't eaten in the last two days. I'm just so nervous and excited," said his wife, Shari, 32.

With good reason. During his absence, Taylor – a museum security guard who is studying to be a police officer – his wife gave birth to their second son and his daughter graduated from kindergarten.

To top it off, while overseas he grew a mustache – and was lobbying for the family's acceptance of it.

On Thursday, he met 3-month-old John for the first time and sat on the sidewalk cradling him. He fed his son a bottle and kissed and hugged his other two children, who climbed onto his lap.

Jane, 6, declared surprise that her dad didn't smell after all his time in the desert, while son Keith, 3, touched the mustache with suspicion.

"Are you gonna cut that Daddy? I want my old dad back."

Taylor smiled and said he would. "I'm so happy to be back with my family."

Sempers,

Roger