thedrifter
03-30-09, 01:41 PM
800 return from Iraq this week
By Kurt Schauppner
Twentynine Palms Correspondent
Published: Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:57 AM CDT
MCAGCC — Some 800 Marines and sailors returned from duty in Iraq this week, coming home to loved ones waiting for them at Victory Field here on Monday and Wednesday.
Members of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, the Marines and sailors deployed to Iraq in August and September. This reportedly marked the battalion’s fifth tour of duty in Iraq.
After dropping off their weapons at the combat center armory, they arrived at Victory Field about 8:15 p.m.
The combat center band was on hand, playing a mini concert about a half-hour before Marines and sailors arrived and then playing again when buses rolled up to the field and the arriving heroes disembarked.
Kim Cosper, who drove in from Bakersfield with her family to wait for her son, Cpl. Jake Cosper, finishing his second tour, spent part of the time finishing work on some welcome posters.
One family, Glenda and Daniel Henderson and Melissa Peasley, flew in from Harrison, Ark., to wait for their son and Melissa’s boyfriend, Sgt. Darren Henderson, to return from his second tour of duty.
“We got to talk on the Facebook,” Peasley said of ways she found to cope with the separation, adding that lots of prayers also helped.
“We’re happy he’s home,” she added. “We’ll spend a few days here.”
The family of Cpl. Felix Cervantes, including Maria, Jessica and Araceli Cervantes and Justin Bennett, drove in from Antioch, a Bay Area city about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco to welcome Cervantes, who was returning from his second tour of duty.
They wore matching T-shirts, reading, “Our Hero is Back,” which they had made when Cervantes returned from his first tour of duty, and carried a banner made for this return.
Jennifer Lichty, whose boyfriend, Sgt. Christopher Thomas, was coming home from his third deployment, drove from Las Vegas, Nev. “The drive home will be better because he’s going to be next to me.”
Ellie
By Kurt Schauppner
Twentynine Palms Correspondent
Published: Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:57 AM CDT
MCAGCC — Some 800 Marines and sailors returned from duty in Iraq this week, coming home to loved ones waiting for them at Victory Field here on Monday and Wednesday.
Members of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, the Marines and sailors deployed to Iraq in August and September. This reportedly marked the battalion’s fifth tour of duty in Iraq.
After dropping off their weapons at the combat center armory, they arrived at Victory Field about 8:15 p.m.
The combat center band was on hand, playing a mini concert about a half-hour before Marines and sailors arrived and then playing again when buses rolled up to the field and the arriving heroes disembarked.
Kim Cosper, who drove in from Bakersfield with her family to wait for her son, Cpl. Jake Cosper, finishing his second tour, spent part of the time finishing work on some welcome posters.
One family, Glenda and Daniel Henderson and Melissa Peasley, flew in from Harrison, Ark., to wait for their son and Melissa’s boyfriend, Sgt. Darren Henderson, to return from his second tour of duty.
“We got to talk on the Facebook,” Peasley said of ways she found to cope with the separation, adding that lots of prayers also helped.
“We’re happy he’s home,” she added. “We’ll spend a few days here.”
The family of Cpl. Felix Cervantes, including Maria, Jessica and Araceli Cervantes and Justin Bennett, drove in from Antioch, a Bay Area city about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco to welcome Cervantes, who was returning from his second tour of duty.
They wore matching T-shirts, reading, “Our Hero is Back,” which they had made when Cervantes returned from his first tour of duty, and carried a banner made for this return.
Jennifer Lichty, whose boyfriend, Sgt. Christopher Thomas, was coming home from his third deployment, drove from Las Vegas, Nev. “The drive home will be better because he’s going to be next to me.”
Ellie