thedrifter
09-30-09, 10:02 AM
Posted on Wed, Sep. 30, 2009
Family eagerly awaits Marine’s return
By SHAWN CETRONE
The (Rock Hill) Herald
ROCK HILL — When Larry Yon’s phone rang last week and the caller ID flashed the words “Quantico Marines,” he knew the news wouldn’t be good.
Yon learned his son, Marine Lance Cpl. James Yon, had been injured in Afghanistan when an explosion rocked his patrol convoy. He was deafened by the blast, the only reported injury in the incident.
James Yon is recovering in a hospital in Germany, his Rock Hill family said, and has regained hearing in his left ear. Doctors expect hearing in his right ear to improve over time.
Larry and Mary Yon are relieved, but anxious for December, when their son is expected to return home to visit.
“He’s my hero,” Larry Yon said. “He doesn’t like it when I say that.”
The Yons describe their 28-year-old son as a dedicated Christian and Marine who has dreamed of serving his country since childhood.
“As a child, he always talked about being in the service,” Mary Yon said. Later he took up paintball and laser tag.
After graduating from Rock Hill High, James Yon enrolled at York Technical College, then Winthrop University. He later transferred to Montreat College in North Carolina, where he studied youth ministry. During his senior year of college, he enlisted in the Marines.
He has been involved with the youth group at his church, Neely’s Creek ARP Church in Rock Hill, since he was a child and grew into a leader there, Mary Yon said. He focused on getting to know the children and teens he taught.
“He’s not a stand-on-the-street-corner-and-scream-the-Bible-at-you kind of person,” Mary Yon said. “His is more of a develop-a-relationship approach.”
Montreat is where James Yon met Laura Carlsen, whom he later married in a wedding on a beach in Hawaii, where his Marine base is.
Yon-Carlsen, who is deaf, plays for the U.S. Deaflympics soccer team, which earlier this month won the gold medal at the 2009 Deaflympics competition in Taipei, Taiwan.
Yon’s family laughs when they recount the practical jokes he’s fond of playing.
“He’s a prankster,” Larry Yon said. “He does a lot of them on me. It just makes life interesting.”
Benson Yon, 25, recalled Christmas mornings with his brother.
“We would wake up our parents at 4 o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve,” Benson Yon said. “We would do this in weird ways.”
One morning, the teens stood outside their parents’ window, and James fired a shotgun in the air.
That didn’t work.
“What woke them up was us running in their bedroom saying, ‘Merry Christmas,’” Benson Yon said.
Another morning, the two set an alarm clock to ring at 4 a.m. and hid it under their parents’ bed.
When it rang, Larry Yon, a U.S. Navy veteran, fell out of the bed trying to turn it off.
“Oh, no,” James joked at the time. “He thinks he’s being shot and got down on the floor.”
“They would come up with something new every year,” Larry Yon said. “It was a lot of fun.”
James Yon is also a neat freak, his mother said — “an extreme neat freak.”
“When he was 10,” she said, “he told me I did not wash clothes right. So he washed them and folded them on his own.
“When he went to boot camp, I said they’re either going to love him or hate him.”
The Yons aren’t sure exactly when their son will make it home to visit, but expect it will be December when his tour in Afghanistan ends. It’s his second tour since he enlisted nearly three years ago. His first was in Iraq.
Larry Yon, who spent two days under mortar fire in Vietnam, is proud of his son, but concerned.
“I worry that he’s going to remember these things for years and years to come, and not all of these will be good memories. War is ugly. It put me in depression knowing he’s going to be dealing with some of these issues.
“I’m also extremely glad he’s out of Afghanistan.”
Asked to describe his son in a sentence, Larry Yon said: “He is a very playful, hard-nosed Marine.”
Ellie
Family eagerly awaits Marine’s return
By SHAWN CETRONE
The (Rock Hill) Herald
ROCK HILL — When Larry Yon’s phone rang last week and the caller ID flashed the words “Quantico Marines,” he knew the news wouldn’t be good.
Yon learned his son, Marine Lance Cpl. James Yon, had been injured in Afghanistan when an explosion rocked his patrol convoy. He was deafened by the blast, the only reported injury in the incident.
James Yon is recovering in a hospital in Germany, his Rock Hill family said, and has regained hearing in his left ear. Doctors expect hearing in his right ear to improve over time.
Larry and Mary Yon are relieved, but anxious for December, when their son is expected to return home to visit.
“He’s my hero,” Larry Yon said. “He doesn’t like it when I say that.”
The Yons describe their 28-year-old son as a dedicated Christian and Marine who has dreamed of serving his country since childhood.
“As a child, he always talked about being in the service,” Mary Yon said. Later he took up paintball and laser tag.
After graduating from Rock Hill High, James Yon enrolled at York Technical College, then Winthrop University. He later transferred to Montreat College in North Carolina, where he studied youth ministry. During his senior year of college, he enlisted in the Marines.
He has been involved with the youth group at his church, Neely’s Creek ARP Church in Rock Hill, since he was a child and grew into a leader there, Mary Yon said. He focused on getting to know the children and teens he taught.
“He’s not a stand-on-the-street-corner-and-scream-the-Bible-at-you kind of person,” Mary Yon said. “His is more of a develop-a-relationship approach.”
Montreat is where James Yon met Laura Carlsen, whom he later married in a wedding on a beach in Hawaii, where his Marine base is.
Yon-Carlsen, who is deaf, plays for the U.S. Deaflympics soccer team, which earlier this month won the gold medal at the 2009 Deaflympics competition in Taipei, Taiwan.
Yon’s family laughs when they recount the practical jokes he’s fond of playing.
“He’s a prankster,” Larry Yon said. “He does a lot of them on me. It just makes life interesting.”
Benson Yon, 25, recalled Christmas mornings with his brother.
“We would wake up our parents at 4 o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve,” Benson Yon said. “We would do this in weird ways.”
One morning, the teens stood outside their parents’ window, and James fired a shotgun in the air.
That didn’t work.
“What woke them up was us running in their bedroom saying, ‘Merry Christmas,’” Benson Yon said.
Another morning, the two set an alarm clock to ring at 4 a.m. and hid it under their parents’ bed.
When it rang, Larry Yon, a U.S. Navy veteran, fell out of the bed trying to turn it off.
“Oh, no,” James joked at the time. “He thinks he’s being shot and got down on the floor.”
“They would come up with something new every year,” Larry Yon said. “It was a lot of fun.”
James Yon is also a neat freak, his mother said — “an extreme neat freak.”
“When he was 10,” she said, “he told me I did not wash clothes right. So he washed them and folded them on his own.
“When he went to boot camp, I said they’re either going to love him or hate him.”
The Yons aren’t sure exactly when their son will make it home to visit, but expect it will be December when his tour in Afghanistan ends. It’s his second tour since he enlisted nearly three years ago. His first was in Iraq.
Larry Yon, who spent two days under mortar fire in Vietnam, is proud of his son, but concerned.
“I worry that he’s going to remember these things for years and years to come, and not all of these will be good memories. War is ugly. It put me in depression knowing he’s going to be dealing with some of these issues.
“I’m also extremely glad he’s out of Afghanistan.”
Asked to describe his son in a sentence, Larry Yon said: “He is a very playful, hard-nosed Marine.”
Ellie