thedrifter
04-15-09, 07:27 AM
Three Newton friends serve in Iraq while their mothers cope at home
By Dan Atkinson/Staff Writer
Wicked Local Newton
Posted Apr 14, 2009 @ 03:23 PM
Newton —
Twenty-one years ago, Emer Mezzetti held Debbie Pine’s infant son while she was pregnant with her own boy. Three years later, Mezzetti’s son met Karen McCabe’s son in nursery school.
And 15 years after that, the three friends and Newton North graduates — Shawn McCabe, Ronnie McNeil and Jimmy Pine — enlisted in the Marines.
All three have done tours in Iraq, Jimmy twice and Shawn and Ronnie once. And all three recently came home on leave, with McCabe coming in Tuesday morning from Camp Pendleton in California. While Jimmy already had to return to Camp Lejune in North Carolina — making the drive in 12 hours, his mother said — the other two Marines and all three mothers are throwing a party this weekend at American Legion Post 440. It’s not just a “Welcome Home” party, McCabe said, but a thank you for all the friends and family members who have given their support over the years.
“This is the good stuff,” Karen said. “We don’t want gifts, just a good time.”
The three friends have fun when they’re all together — “they still wrestle around like lunatics,” Karen said — and Ronnie and Shawn recently celebrated their 21st birthdays with some karaoke near Camp Pendleton. And exuberance and friendly competition was how the three wound up enlisting in the first place, Karen said. While Ronnie had been interested in the military for years — his older sister served, Emer said — Jimmy prodded Shawn into joining him every week in physical training at the Marine recruitment facility in Waltham.
“Jimmy would say, ‘Bet you can’t do it,’” Karen recalled.
Worrying from afar
Karen was fine with her son participating in exercises, but actually joining the military was another thing.
“He asked me at 17 if he could sign up and join the Marines, and I said ‘No!’” Karen said. “He wanted the medical benefits! I told him he could come home in a body bag or with a missing appendage.”
But Shawn just waited until July 2006, when he turned 18, to enlist. Although he did not leave for Iraq until 2008, Karen McCabe still strongly felt his absence when he was at boot camp, and worried about him getting injured or worse.
However, she hasn’t had to deal with those fears by herself. She talks with Emer and Debbie about their sons overseas, and during a group interview with the TAB on Monday, each mother was well versed in the tribulations and shenanigans of the other two sons. The group laughingly compared their boys’ tattoos, with Jimmy having the largest — an enormous skull, helmet and rifle on his chest — but Shawn’s ink on his arm drew the most ire from his mother. And they bragged about their sons’ appeal to the opposite sex.
“I was in the market in Auburndale and someone said to me, ‘He’s so hot!’” Karen said.
The moms are there for each other in tough times, too. In February, Jimmy’s armored truck rolled over after taking a turn too sharply. Jimmy had just put his helmet on after banging his head going over a bump, Debbie said, and the rollover cracked the helmet in half. No one died in the accident, but Jimmy had a concussion and back injuries.
“When he called, I knew he was hurt,” Debbie said. “You can just tell your kid’s voice.”
After his initial call, Debbie sat by the phone all weekend waiting for more information from the Red Cross and the military that never came. Her ex-husband finally got an update on Jimmy’s status a few days later, but in the meantime, she had been talking with Emer and Karen for comfort.
“We all kept in touch on the phone; it’s all you can do,” Emer said.
Despite the anxiety involved, the three constantly read newspapers and follow TV reports about the Iraq war. It’s hard to read about men dying overseas, Emer said — if they’re her son’s age, to her they’re just boys.
“I read the newspapers and cry and pray for people,” she said. “And I feel blessed that [Jimmy, Ronnie and Shawn] came home.”
Danger overseas
While the mothers keep in touch with their sons through e-mail, Facebook and the occasional phone call, there’s still much that they don’t know about what their boys are up to — either for security or personal reasons.
“He doesn’t tell me everything because I’m his mother,” Debbie said.
And there’s a general reluctance to talk about their duties. Ronnie, a communications specialist in the 125th Unit out of Fort Devens, did not want to talk too much about his work running background checks and processing visitors to his base in Anbar province.
“My job was to make sure no bad people entered the base,” he said.
Shawn, who’s in the 7th Engineer Support Battalion out of Camp Pendleton, was a transportation, or Motor T, driver, Karen said. She constantly worried about accidents like Jimmy’s and IED ambushes, and not knowing where Shawn was didn’t help.
“He was based in Ramadi but sent all over,” Karen said. “If he called, he’d just say he was on a mission.”
Jimmy is a sniper scout in the First Battalion, Second Marines out of Camp LeJuneand has been in some tense situations, Debbie said — including one when someone in his own battalion committed suicide during Jimmy’s first tour. At Easter dinner last week, someone in the family made the cardinal mistake of asking Jimmy if he had killed anyone, and got no response.
“You never talk about whether you’ve killed anyone, never,” Debbie said.
Things that help lift their sons’ spirits while overseas, the mothers said, are care packages from schoolchildren. Some are well-wishing pick-me-ups, Emer said, and some are more concerned for the Marines’ safety. And one that Ronnie received was a combination of the two — it somberly hoped “you survive the ***** [sic].”
Debbie said she’s disappointed that Newton schools don’t send letters and care packages abroad. Besides the three friends, five or six other Newtonites are serving overseas, she said.
“These kids all grew up in Newton, and do they get stuff from the schools? They don’t get sent anything,” she said.
“People pretend there’s not a war happening,” Emer said.
Enjoying the present
The party this Saturday at 7 p.m. at Post 440 on 295 California St., is a way for people in town to celebrate Jimmy, Ronnie and Shawn coming home safe, Karen said. She’s invited their nursery school teachers, and plans to bring the school’s blue punishment chair where Ronnie spent so much time as a child. The Brigade, an Irish band, will also be on hand for entertainment. While Jimmy will be back in North Carolina, Ronnie and Shawn will be enjoying the music and the company of their family and friends.
No one wants to think too hard about the future right now. Jimmy plans to re-up, Debbie said, and Ronnie, a reservist, has to serve six years and can be called up again for two years afterward, Emer said.
Karen knows when Shawn gets out to the date — July 24, 2010 — but that’s not for certain either, with stop-loss extensions requiring further service past the regular enlistment requirement. She, Emer and Debbie are worried that though the military is slowly leaving Iraq, it’s increasing troops in Afghanistan.
“I don’t want Jimmy to go to Afghanistan, I don’t know how much more I can take,” Debbie said. “I told him he’s already served his country, he’s already done his thing, he doesn’t have to [re-enlist], and he said, ‘But I want to.’”
Ronnie also didn’t want to contemplate further combat in Afghanistan.
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” he said. “I’ll think about it later.”
Right now, he’s thinking about the adjustments to life back from Iraq, where he spent all his time with the same people, everyone wore the same clothing and all looked the same. He’s getting used to driving again — “driving is mindblowing” — and still trying to put things in cargo pants pockets that aren’t there.
One thing Ronnie’s eager to adjust to is home cooking, especially his grandfather’s homemade clam chowder.
“I’ve been really looking forward to seafood,” he said. “Cape Cod versus the Euphrates River — it’s not the same.”
And being at home with family and friends is different than talking through satellites and cables. Ronnie regaled the mothers with a tale of briefly seeing Jimmy on base in Iraq, wearing tiny shorts that “did not look like anything a man should be wearing.”
“They were booty shorts,” Ronnie said as Debbie, Emer and Karen broke up laughing.
Ellie
By Dan Atkinson/Staff Writer
Wicked Local Newton
Posted Apr 14, 2009 @ 03:23 PM
Newton —
Twenty-one years ago, Emer Mezzetti held Debbie Pine’s infant son while she was pregnant with her own boy. Three years later, Mezzetti’s son met Karen McCabe’s son in nursery school.
And 15 years after that, the three friends and Newton North graduates — Shawn McCabe, Ronnie McNeil and Jimmy Pine — enlisted in the Marines.
All three have done tours in Iraq, Jimmy twice and Shawn and Ronnie once. And all three recently came home on leave, with McCabe coming in Tuesday morning from Camp Pendleton in California. While Jimmy already had to return to Camp Lejune in North Carolina — making the drive in 12 hours, his mother said — the other two Marines and all three mothers are throwing a party this weekend at American Legion Post 440. It’s not just a “Welcome Home” party, McCabe said, but a thank you for all the friends and family members who have given their support over the years.
“This is the good stuff,” Karen said. “We don’t want gifts, just a good time.”
The three friends have fun when they’re all together — “they still wrestle around like lunatics,” Karen said — and Ronnie and Shawn recently celebrated their 21st birthdays with some karaoke near Camp Pendleton. And exuberance and friendly competition was how the three wound up enlisting in the first place, Karen said. While Ronnie had been interested in the military for years — his older sister served, Emer said — Jimmy prodded Shawn into joining him every week in physical training at the Marine recruitment facility in Waltham.
“Jimmy would say, ‘Bet you can’t do it,’” Karen recalled.
Worrying from afar
Karen was fine with her son participating in exercises, but actually joining the military was another thing.
“He asked me at 17 if he could sign up and join the Marines, and I said ‘No!’” Karen said. “He wanted the medical benefits! I told him he could come home in a body bag or with a missing appendage.”
But Shawn just waited until July 2006, when he turned 18, to enlist. Although he did not leave for Iraq until 2008, Karen McCabe still strongly felt his absence when he was at boot camp, and worried about him getting injured or worse.
However, she hasn’t had to deal with those fears by herself. She talks with Emer and Debbie about their sons overseas, and during a group interview with the TAB on Monday, each mother was well versed in the tribulations and shenanigans of the other two sons. The group laughingly compared their boys’ tattoos, with Jimmy having the largest — an enormous skull, helmet and rifle on his chest — but Shawn’s ink on his arm drew the most ire from his mother. And they bragged about their sons’ appeal to the opposite sex.
“I was in the market in Auburndale and someone said to me, ‘He’s so hot!’” Karen said.
The moms are there for each other in tough times, too. In February, Jimmy’s armored truck rolled over after taking a turn too sharply. Jimmy had just put his helmet on after banging his head going over a bump, Debbie said, and the rollover cracked the helmet in half. No one died in the accident, but Jimmy had a concussion and back injuries.
“When he called, I knew he was hurt,” Debbie said. “You can just tell your kid’s voice.”
After his initial call, Debbie sat by the phone all weekend waiting for more information from the Red Cross and the military that never came. Her ex-husband finally got an update on Jimmy’s status a few days later, but in the meantime, she had been talking with Emer and Karen for comfort.
“We all kept in touch on the phone; it’s all you can do,” Emer said.
Despite the anxiety involved, the three constantly read newspapers and follow TV reports about the Iraq war. It’s hard to read about men dying overseas, Emer said — if they’re her son’s age, to her they’re just boys.
“I read the newspapers and cry and pray for people,” she said. “And I feel blessed that [Jimmy, Ronnie and Shawn] came home.”
Danger overseas
While the mothers keep in touch with their sons through e-mail, Facebook and the occasional phone call, there’s still much that they don’t know about what their boys are up to — either for security or personal reasons.
“He doesn’t tell me everything because I’m his mother,” Debbie said.
And there’s a general reluctance to talk about their duties. Ronnie, a communications specialist in the 125th Unit out of Fort Devens, did not want to talk too much about his work running background checks and processing visitors to his base in Anbar province.
“My job was to make sure no bad people entered the base,” he said.
Shawn, who’s in the 7th Engineer Support Battalion out of Camp Pendleton, was a transportation, or Motor T, driver, Karen said. She constantly worried about accidents like Jimmy’s and IED ambushes, and not knowing where Shawn was didn’t help.
“He was based in Ramadi but sent all over,” Karen said. “If he called, he’d just say he was on a mission.”
Jimmy is a sniper scout in the First Battalion, Second Marines out of Camp LeJuneand has been in some tense situations, Debbie said — including one when someone in his own battalion committed suicide during Jimmy’s first tour. At Easter dinner last week, someone in the family made the cardinal mistake of asking Jimmy if he had killed anyone, and got no response.
“You never talk about whether you’ve killed anyone, never,” Debbie said.
Things that help lift their sons’ spirits while overseas, the mothers said, are care packages from schoolchildren. Some are well-wishing pick-me-ups, Emer said, and some are more concerned for the Marines’ safety. And one that Ronnie received was a combination of the two — it somberly hoped “you survive the ***** [sic].”
Debbie said she’s disappointed that Newton schools don’t send letters and care packages abroad. Besides the three friends, five or six other Newtonites are serving overseas, she said.
“These kids all grew up in Newton, and do they get stuff from the schools? They don’t get sent anything,” she said.
“People pretend there’s not a war happening,” Emer said.
Enjoying the present
The party this Saturday at 7 p.m. at Post 440 on 295 California St., is a way for people in town to celebrate Jimmy, Ronnie and Shawn coming home safe, Karen said. She’s invited their nursery school teachers, and plans to bring the school’s blue punishment chair where Ronnie spent so much time as a child. The Brigade, an Irish band, will also be on hand for entertainment. While Jimmy will be back in North Carolina, Ronnie and Shawn will be enjoying the music and the company of their family and friends.
No one wants to think too hard about the future right now. Jimmy plans to re-up, Debbie said, and Ronnie, a reservist, has to serve six years and can be called up again for two years afterward, Emer said.
Karen knows when Shawn gets out to the date — July 24, 2010 — but that’s not for certain either, with stop-loss extensions requiring further service past the regular enlistment requirement. She, Emer and Debbie are worried that though the military is slowly leaving Iraq, it’s increasing troops in Afghanistan.
“I don’t want Jimmy to go to Afghanistan, I don’t know how much more I can take,” Debbie said. “I told him he’s already served his country, he’s already done his thing, he doesn’t have to [re-enlist], and he said, ‘But I want to.’”
Ronnie also didn’t want to contemplate further combat in Afghanistan.
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” he said. “I’ll think about it later.”
Right now, he’s thinking about the adjustments to life back from Iraq, where he spent all his time with the same people, everyone wore the same clothing and all looked the same. He’s getting used to driving again — “driving is mindblowing” — and still trying to put things in cargo pants pockets that aren’t there.
One thing Ronnie’s eager to adjust to is home cooking, especially his grandfather’s homemade clam chowder.
“I’ve been really looking forward to seafood,” he said. “Cape Cod versus the Euphrates River — it’s not the same.”
And being at home with family and friends is different than talking through satellites and cables. Ronnie regaled the mothers with a tale of briefly seeing Jimmy on base in Iraq, wearing tiny shorts that “did not look like anything a man should be wearing.”
“They were booty shorts,” Ronnie said as Debbie, Emer and Karen broke up laughing.
Ellie