thedrifter
03-09-09, 07:44 AM
A flag from Fallujah
By Marc Munroe Dion
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Mar 08, 2009 @ 08:18 PM
Last update Mar 08, 2009 @ 11:19 PM
Swansea —
Marine Cpl. Josh Lemieux, 23, of Swansea, is back in the states now, but back in 2007, he was deep in Iraq with the other Marines in his outfit, running the risks and garnering the rewards common to all soldiers.
Except one.
“The chief of police in Fallujah gave him the flag that flew over the police station,” said Elaine Andrews, Lemieux’s grandmother. “He invited him to dinner, too.”
As far as Andrews knows, Lemieux is one of the few, if not the only Marine so honored.
“When he was little, it was a toss-up between baseball and the Marines,” said Tammy Daponte, Lemieux’s mother.
It took a while for Andrews to see the flag and the accompanying certificates of appreciation from Fallujah Chief of Police Col. Faisal Hussein.
“He gave it to his girlfriend,” said Daponte.
“But I said I wanted to see it," said Andrews.
It’s a small token from a war far away, a war Lemieux left a few months ago.
“He had a long deployment, 13 months” Daponte said. Lemieux is now in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“At least I know where he is,” Daponte said. “I never know where the other one is.”
Daponte’s 19 year-old boy, Louis, is in Saudi Arabia right now before heading to Afghanistan. He’s a Marine, too.
Daponte said her son was very instrumental in keeping communications open between the police and the troops in Fallujah, a place where death is everyone’s neighbor.
“They didn’t want him to leave," she said of the Fallujah police.
“Anytime something happened, they would take the bodies, the wounded, to the police station and he would call in the Medevacs,” Daponte said.
“There were people, Iraqi people with missing limbs. One night he was carrying one of them on his back down a flight of stairs and he died,” Daponte said. “He called me to vent about that.”
Daponte said Lemieux calls when he can, usually once or twice a week.
“He would call her from Fallujah and she could hear explosions,” Andrews said.
“There was always something,” Daponte said. “He’d call me and I could hear explosions and guns firing in the background and I said, 'Tell me that’s not what I’m hearing.’”
Joshua Lemieux’s term of enlistment is up in August. He tells his mom he would like to become a State Trooper.
E-mail Marc Munroe Dion at mdion@heraldnews.com.
Ellie
By Marc Munroe Dion
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Mar 08, 2009 @ 08:18 PM
Last update Mar 08, 2009 @ 11:19 PM
Swansea —
Marine Cpl. Josh Lemieux, 23, of Swansea, is back in the states now, but back in 2007, he was deep in Iraq with the other Marines in his outfit, running the risks and garnering the rewards common to all soldiers.
Except one.
“The chief of police in Fallujah gave him the flag that flew over the police station,” said Elaine Andrews, Lemieux’s grandmother. “He invited him to dinner, too.”
As far as Andrews knows, Lemieux is one of the few, if not the only Marine so honored.
“When he was little, it was a toss-up between baseball and the Marines,” said Tammy Daponte, Lemieux’s mother.
It took a while for Andrews to see the flag and the accompanying certificates of appreciation from Fallujah Chief of Police Col. Faisal Hussein.
“He gave it to his girlfriend,” said Daponte.
“But I said I wanted to see it," said Andrews.
It’s a small token from a war far away, a war Lemieux left a few months ago.
“He had a long deployment, 13 months” Daponte said. Lemieux is now in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
“At least I know where he is,” Daponte said. “I never know where the other one is.”
Daponte’s 19 year-old boy, Louis, is in Saudi Arabia right now before heading to Afghanistan. He’s a Marine, too.
Daponte said her son was very instrumental in keeping communications open between the police and the troops in Fallujah, a place where death is everyone’s neighbor.
“They didn’t want him to leave," she said of the Fallujah police.
“Anytime something happened, they would take the bodies, the wounded, to the police station and he would call in the Medevacs,” Daponte said.
“There were people, Iraqi people with missing limbs. One night he was carrying one of them on his back down a flight of stairs and he died,” Daponte said. “He called me to vent about that.”
Daponte said Lemieux calls when he can, usually once or twice a week.
“He would call her from Fallujah and she could hear explosions,” Andrews said.
“There was always something,” Daponte said. “He’d call me and I could hear explosions and guns firing in the background and I said, 'Tell me that’s not what I’m hearing.’”
Joshua Lemieux’s term of enlistment is up in August. He tells his mom he would like to become a State Trooper.
E-mail Marc Munroe Dion at mdion@heraldnews.com.
Ellie