thedrifter
08-05-03, 05:26 AM
Local Marines share Iraq experience
By RANDY GRIFFITH, THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT August 03, 2003
Knowing the enemy could be anywhere around him, Staff Sgt. Don Neisner of Frankstown Road could do little but try to keep his Marine truck moving through the Iraqi desert.
It wasn’t easy for the chiseled, 31-year-old Marine Corps reservist, who is used to being in control.
“You have to trust in your fellow Marines,” Neisner said, leaning back on his chair at the Naval Reserve Training Center in Ebensburg Industrial Park.
He is part of Marine Reserve 1st and 2nd Platoon Truck Company, which was deployed to the Persian Gulf in February.
He and Lance Cpl. Sydney Shanfield of Hastings took time last week to talk about the war. They shared their thoughts about the continued attacks that threaten more than half of the Ebensburg-based Marines who remain in Iraq.
Neisner will never forget a battle in Southern Iraq in the spring, not long after the column of Marines crossed over from Kuwait.
“It was pretty intense,” Neisner said. “We were hit pretty hard near Nasiriyah, but we didn’t sustain any casualties.”
The emotional stress of that battle will stay with Neisner for the rest of his life. He said it showed him the value of Marine Reserve training. It was a struggle to remain at the wheel of the truck while the enemy waited to attack.
“That was the hardest part: I like to take control of my own destiny,” Neisner said. “But there you have to rely on your fellow Marines.”
The 10-year Marine Reserve veteran’s first deployment proved to be a baptism by fire, but Neisner said he and the Marines he supported were up to the challenge.
“You never know how you are going to react when combat is in your lap,” he said. “All of our Marines handled themselves very well.”
Shanfield was also ready for the challenge of war. In fact, that was why the 20-year-old college student joined the reserves two years ago.
“I’ve always been a goal-oriented person,” Shanfield said at the reserve center. “This was the next challenge I could find.”
The challenge put him right in the thick of the action in Iraq.
Shanfield was assigned to support a group of combat Marine Reservists. He drove transport vehicles hauling weaponry, supplies and troops for the unit threading its way north to Baghdad.
“We were involved in some ambushes,” he said. “We were right in the middle of everything going on.”
When the attacks came, the Marine training kicked in, and he transformed from truck driver to fighter.
“You do the same thing as everybody else. You get out and work security,” Shanfield said. “Every Marine is a rifleman.”
The experience in Iraq was a “real eye-opener” for the young corporal.
Shanfield said he was struck by the oppression he observed, especially in the Shiite areas of Southern Iraq. Families were living in tents made of material that Americans wouldn’t use as rags.
But those people’s reaction to the American troops is what Shanfield said will stay with him.
“I will always remember the faces of the people and the children who were so happy to see you. And they knew you were there to make their lives better,” Shanfield said.
The oppression in the south was a stark contrast to the living conditions Neisner found when the unit he was supporting arrived in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. He said he talked to a number of civilians who still supported Saddam.
“I remember talking to one doctor outside a hospital. He was saying how well-liked Saddam was and how the things he had worked for were good,” Neisner said.
Both men agreed that the most difficult aspect of the war was separation from their families and friends.
Neisner and his wife, Anita, have two sons, Todd, 4, and Samuel, 18 months. Shanfield lives at home with his parents, David and Pamela Shanfield. He has two brothers and two sisters.
“They were on my mind all the time,” Shanfield said.
Mail and packages from home were welcome, but often delayed because of the speed at which troops moved.
An illustration of the mail delays sits on a reserve center counter. Packages were rerouted back from Iraq to follow Ebensburg-based Marines back home since June.
When it found them in the desert, the mail was bittersweet, Neisner said.
“It makes you remember – it drives it home – that you are away from family and friends, but it’s good to hear from them and find out what’s going on at home,” Neisner said.
He said he was a bit uneasy about how his young sons would relate to him after he came home. Counselors warned him some children will withdraw after periods of separation.
The boys soon put his fears to rest.
“When we got back to the center, right away, my son wanted me to hold him and my oldest boy gave me a big hug,” Neisner said, adding that months of separation made him appreciate his family.
Shanfield said he was still sorting out his feelings about the war, but that seeing the average Iraqi’s way of life made him appreciate his freedom.
“We are very lucky for what we have here – for how we can live,” Shanfield said.
Neisner also found an insight for his life in the Iraq desert.
“It puts our lives in perspective,” he said. “Little things that we worry about, that we let give us stress, you put that into a perspective of how things really are in the world.”
©Tribune Democrat 2003
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=9943548&BRD=2332&PAG=461&dept_id=484742&rfi=6
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
By RANDY GRIFFITH, THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT August 03, 2003
Knowing the enemy could be anywhere around him, Staff Sgt. Don Neisner of Frankstown Road could do little but try to keep his Marine truck moving through the Iraqi desert.
It wasn’t easy for the chiseled, 31-year-old Marine Corps reservist, who is used to being in control.
“You have to trust in your fellow Marines,” Neisner said, leaning back on his chair at the Naval Reserve Training Center in Ebensburg Industrial Park.
He is part of Marine Reserve 1st and 2nd Platoon Truck Company, which was deployed to the Persian Gulf in February.
He and Lance Cpl. Sydney Shanfield of Hastings took time last week to talk about the war. They shared their thoughts about the continued attacks that threaten more than half of the Ebensburg-based Marines who remain in Iraq.
Neisner will never forget a battle in Southern Iraq in the spring, not long after the column of Marines crossed over from Kuwait.
“It was pretty intense,” Neisner said. “We were hit pretty hard near Nasiriyah, but we didn’t sustain any casualties.”
The emotional stress of that battle will stay with Neisner for the rest of his life. He said it showed him the value of Marine Reserve training. It was a struggle to remain at the wheel of the truck while the enemy waited to attack.
“That was the hardest part: I like to take control of my own destiny,” Neisner said. “But there you have to rely on your fellow Marines.”
The 10-year Marine Reserve veteran’s first deployment proved to be a baptism by fire, but Neisner said he and the Marines he supported were up to the challenge.
“You never know how you are going to react when combat is in your lap,” he said. “All of our Marines handled themselves very well.”
Shanfield was also ready for the challenge of war. In fact, that was why the 20-year-old college student joined the reserves two years ago.
“I’ve always been a goal-oriented person,” Shanfield said at the reserve center. “This was the next challenge I could find.”
The challenge put him right in the thick of the action in Iraq.
Shanfield was assigned to support a group of combat Marine Reservists. He drove transport vehicles hauling weaponry, supplies and troops for the unit threading its way north to Baghdad.
“We were involved in some ambushes,” he said. “We were right in the middle of everything going on.”
When the attacks came, the Marine training kicked in, and he transformed from truck driver to fighter.
“You do the same thing as everybody else. You get out and work security,” Shanfield said. “Every Marine is a rifleman.”
The experience in Iraq was a “real eye-opener” for the young corporal.
Shanfield said he was struck by the oppression he observed, especially in the Shiite areas of Southern Iraq. Families were living in tents made of material that Americans wouldn’t use as rags.
But those people’s reaction to the American troops is what Shanfield said will stay with him.
“I will always remember the faces of the people and the children who were so happy to see you. And they knew you were there to make their lives better,” Shanfield said.
The oppression in the south was a stark contrast to the living conditions Neisner found when the unit he was supporting arrived in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. He said he talked to a number of civilians who still supported Saddam.
“I remember talking to one doctor outside a hospital. He was saying how well-liked Saddam was and how the things he had worked for were good,” Neisner said.
Both men agreed that the most difficult aspect of the war was separation from their families and friends.
Neisner and his wife, Anita, have two sons, Todd, 4, and Samuel, 18 months. Shanfield lives at home with his parents, David and Pamela Shanfield. He has two brothers and two sisters.
“They were on my mind all the time,” Shanfield said.
Mail and packages from home were welcome, but often delayed because of the speed at which troops moved.
An illustration of the mail delays sits on a reserve center counter. Packages were rerouted back from Iraq to follow Ebensburg-based Marines back home since June.
When it found them in the desert, the mail was bittersweet, Neisner said.
“It makes you remember – it drives it home – that you are away from family and friends, but it’s good to hear from them and find out what’s going on at home,” Neisner said.
He said he was a bit uneasy about how his young sons would relate to him after he came home. Counselors warned him some children will withdraw after periods of separation.
The boys soon put his fears to rest.
“When we got back to the center, right away, my son wanted me to hold him and my oldest boy gave me a big hug,” Neisner said, adding that months of separation made him appreciate his family.
Shanfield said he was still sorting out his feelings about the war, but that seeing the average Iraqi’s way of life made him appreciate his freedom.
“We are very lucky for what we have here – for how we can live,” Shanfield said.
Neisner also found an insight for his life in the Iraq desert.
“It puts our lives in perspective,” he said. “Little things that we worry about, that we let give us stress, you put that into a perspective of how things really are in the world.”
©Tribune Democrat 2003
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=9943548&BRD=2332&PAG=461&dept_id=484742&rfi=6
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: