thedrifter
06-17-03, 05:58 AM
Job Done, Marines Return
By Daryl Khan
Staff Writer
June 14, 2003, 7:55 PM EDT
The 126 Marines from the 6th Communication Battalion stood at attention in the cavernous drill deck of the Armed Services Reserve Center in Brooklyn Saturday afternoon, listening intently to Lt. Col. Dan Romano's briefing.
"You did an outstanding job," he said. "Keep it hard. Keep it real." Romano gave an order to open the doors.
Crowded around the doorway was an eager throng of friends and family, waiting to burst in.
The Marines, dressed in their desert camouflage and lined up in three neat rows, did not budge. It was the first time they had been this close to their loved ones since they were sent to war in Iraq and Kuwait on Jan. 29.
Their steely eyes remained fixed on their commander. It was quiet enough to hear the click-clack of Romano's combat boots as he walked away and turned the Marines over to Lt. Anna Souza.
Souza barked: "Attachment, dismissed!"
"Hurrah!" the Marines shouted in unison.
With that, friends and family stormed and scrambled to find their loved ones in a jubilant mess of hugs and tears.
These Marines are the first wave of more than 700 in the battalion who are returning home after serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Calvin Lawrence of Far Rockaway squeezed his girlfriend, Christeen McCambridge, in a close embrace. In his pocket was a 1.6-carat diamond ring he was going to give her when he proposed marriage last night.
Angelo Solivan teared up as he grabbed his son, Capt. Christopher Solivan, 26, of Washington Heights.
"It's a great Father's Day gift," said Solivan, 62, an Army veteran who lives in Metuchen, N.J.
First Sgt. Rudy Resto, a muscular fireplug of a man, snapped at the Marines trying to greet him as they clambered off the bus after arriving at Floyd Bennett Field about 1 p.m.
But after a couple of dozen Marines marched past, his gruff exterior melted and a smile beamed from his face.
When asked why the change in his demeanor, his simple reply captured what was in the hearts of everyone gathered there: "Because I love them, I miss them, and I'm glad they're home," he said.
In the parking lot, where the families gathered hours before the arrival, the occasion felt like a parade. Children's strollers were decorated with flags, wives held up posters, and one 5-month-old boy was dressed in a custom-made Marine Corps officer's uniform.
Together, the waiting families hung red, white and blue bunting from a barbed-wire fence and tied balloons bearing the words "Welcome Back" to trees.
Children scampered on the grassy rise in front of the two-story building. Friends and family from all over the area shared in one another's elation that the Marines were coming home.
In the distance, the rumble of the buses carrying the Marines, led by a police cruiser flashing its lights, grabbed the attention of the impatient crowd. But Gloria Perez, 46, did not rush to the approaching caravan.
Perez was there to meet her son, Sgt. Eliodoro Perez, 25, but she still has two sons who are Marines stationed abroad, one in Iraq and another in South Korea. She struggled to find someone who could translate a question for her. A look of grave concern animated her face, in stark contrast to the celebratory giddiness sweeping the crowd. Finally, she found a woman to translate for her to a Marine captain.
"When are they going to send my other sons home?" she asked.
The captain did not have an answer.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-mari0615,0,5936199.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
By Daryl Khan
Staff Writer
June 14, 2003, 7:55 PM EDT
The 126 Marines from the 6th Communication Battalion stood at attention in the cavernous drill deck of the Armed Services Reserve Center in Brooklyn Saturday afternoon, listening intently to Lt. Col. Dan Romano's briefing.
"You did an outstanding job," he said. "Keep it hard. Keep it real." Romano gave an order to open the doors.
Crowded around the doorway was an eager throng of friends and family, waiting to burst in.
The Marines, dressed in their desert camouflage and lined up in three neat rows, did not budge. It was the first time they had been this close to their loved ones since they were sent to war in Iraq and Kuwait on Jan. 29.
Their steely eyes remained fixed on their commander. It was quiet enough to hear the click-clack of Romano's combat boots as he walked away and turned the Marines over to Lt. Anna Souza.
Souza barked: "Attachment, dismissed!"
"Hurrah!" the Marines shouted in unison.
With that, friends and family stormed and scrambled to find their loved ones in a jubilant mess of hugs and tears.
These Marines are the first wave of more than 700 in the battalion who are returning home after serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Calvin Lawrence of Far Rockaway squeezed his girlfriend, Christeen McCambridge, in a close embrace. In his pocket was a 1.6-carat diamond ring he was going to give her when he proposed marriage last night.
Angelo Solivan teared up as he grabbed his son, Capt. Christopher Solivan, 26, of Washington Heights.
"It's a great Father's Day gift," said Solivan, 62, an Army veteran who lives in Metuchen, N.J.
First Sgt. Rudy Resto, a muscular fireplug of a man, snapped at the Marines trying to greet him as they clambered off the bus after arriving at Floyd Bennett Field about 1 p.m.
But after a couple of dozen Marines marched past, his gruff exterior melted and a smile beamed from his face.
When asked why the change in his demeanor, his simple reply captured what was in the hearts of everyone gathered there: "Because I love them, I miss them, and I'm glad they're home," he said.
In the parking lot, where the families gathered hours before the arrival, the occasion felt like a parade. Children's strollers were decorated with flags, wives held up posters, and one 5-month-old boy was dressed in a custom-made Marine Corps officer's uniform.
Together, the waiting families hung red, white and blue bunting from a barbed-wire fence and tied balloons bearing the words "Welcome Back" to trees.
Children scampered on the grassy rise in front of the two-story building. Friends and family from all over the area shared in one another's elation that the Marines were coming home.
In the distance, the rumble of the buses carrying the Marines, led by a police cruiser flashing its lights, grabbed the attention of the impatient crowd. But Gloria Perez, 46, did not rush to the approaching caravan.
Perez was there to meet her son, Sgt. Eliodoro Perez, 25, but she still has two sons who are Marines stationed abroad, one in Iraq and another in South Korea. She struggled to find someone who could translate a question for her. A look of grave concern animated her face, in stark contrast to the celebratory giddiness sweeping the crowd. Finally, she found a woman to translate for her to a Marine captain.
"When are they going to send my other sons home?" she asked.
The captain did not have an answer.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-mari0615,0,5936199.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: