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thedrifter
10-16-09, 09:39 AM
Life in Marines a dream come true for Berlin native
Back from an eight-month tour in Iraq, Buck Chambers now ready for Afghanistan
CHRISTINE CULLEN Staff Writer

(Oct. 16, 2009) Lance Cpl. Paul "Buck" Chambers will never forget the faces of the Iraqi children or the sheer joy they showed when he and his fellow Marines handed out some of the most priceless items their villages had seen: pencils and paper.


"In the Kurdish villages, the kids just swarmed us, calling, 'Mister, mister,'" the 30-year-old soldier said last week. "I loved giving the kids candy, gum, things these kids never get to have."

Born and raised in Berlin, Chambers recently served an eight-month tour in Iraq as part of an operation to halt the flow of weapons into the war-torn country. He returned to the United States in May and is now on standby to be shipped to Afghanistan. Sitting in the kitchen of his mother's home in Ocean Pines on Sunday while on leave from Camp Lejeune, N.C., he said life in the Marines is a dream come true.

"I joined because I needed to do something meaningful with myself, to get direction in life," Chambers said. "I never want to ask myself, 'What if?' I just want to be able to say, 'I did it.' You quickly learn you're a part of something so much bigger than yourself. That answers any doubts of why I do this."

Chambers said he always knew he wanted to be a Marine. A sense of duty and patriotism, he said, as well as the desire to make a difference pushed him to join the corps in 2007.

But Chambers broke the news to his mother, Pat Johnson, in a much less poetic manner.

"He calls me up one day and says,

Mom, I know you told me to get off my butt and do something. I've been playing a lot of Army video games and it got me thinking about joining, so I called the Army and the Marines.' I was so proud," Johnson, a teacher at Stephen Decatur Middle School, said.

A month after making the call, Chambers headed to the Marine training center at Parris Island, S.C., for 13 rigorous weeks of intense training. After graduation, he went through nine weeks of infantry training, followed by Marine Corps fleet training, before being stationed at Camp Lejeune.

"It's a shock from the moment you get off the bus until the moment you graduate," Chambers said. "It's in your face 24-7."

Just five months later, in October 2008, Chambers was sent to Iraq, one of the first Marines from his boot camp class to be sent overseas. While he was excited to be putting his training to use and fulfilling his dream, Johnson worried for her son's safety.

"I was extremely worried, but I was so proud of him," she said. "I checked every single day to see how he was doing and what was going on. One day, I went on MySpace and saw he was logged on, and I was excited to see he had access to a computer. He sent me a Gmail instant message and I was so excited, like a little kid."

Finding time to communicate with family back home is quite challenging, Chambers said, because resources are so limited and the servicemen must get in line.

"The computers were in a big tent in the middle of the desert. You're fighting for a computer with thousands of other Marines," he said.

Even when Chambers could not communicate with his family — he once went an entire month between phone calls — Johnson said just knowing he was online helped her relax.

"If I saw he could get on to MySpace, I knew he was OK," she said.

In Iraq, Chambers was part of Operation Deny Al Qaeda North, traveling mainly throughout the northern part of the country to ensure the terrorist group did not bring weapons into the country across the northern border. His was an expeditionary force, constantly on the move and living out of their armored trucks instead of a base.

"There was no place where you knew you were going to be going home to sleep," he said. The Marines slept four to a truck, camping out in the middle of the desert.

"It took four washes to get all the Iraqi dirt out of his clothes" when he returned, Johnson said.

The desolation of the desert begins to take a toll after a while, Chambers said. Sometimes he and his fellow Marines went days without seeing another human being. The unit was also tasked with searching the people and villages they came across for weapons and destroying any weapons caches.

"A lot of the glory people associate with Marines in battle can be a misconception. There is that, but there can also be a lot of boredom," he said.

Living in the moment is an important part of being at war, Chambers said. His isolated location limited the unit's contact with the Iraqi people and could lead to complacency, but he said the knowledge that letting your guard down for one minute could be deadly kept the Marines on their toes.

His work brought Chambers into contact with villagers in the Kurdish territory of the country, and he said seeing the way they live and the hardships they encounter daily made him stop taking life for granted.

"We knew we would always have food and water, and we often shared it with the Kurds. We sacrificed a little bit. We figured we could help by cutting back on one meal a day, so we did it," he said.

Chambers returned from Iraq in May, ready for some rest, relaxation and the chance to spend time with his family. But when his commanders came calling just three months later asking if he wanted to go to Afghanistan, he did not hesitate to volunteer.

"I immediately said, 'You can put me on board for it,'" he said. "I don't want to be watching TV and see news of Marines engaged in a firefight and think that was an operation I was supposed to be in and maybe I could have helped them. That's my biggest fear."

Johnson is worried about her son returning to a war zone so soon after leaving Iraq, but she is proud of the career choice he made and tries to be as supportive as possible.

"It's his choice, it's his career, it's what he really wants. But that doesn't make my worry any less," she said.

Chambers is now on standby and could be sent to Afghanistan at a moment's notice. That aspect of Marine life, being ready to pick up and leave at any moment and without warning, can be frustrating, he said, not only for him but his entire family.

But Chambers loves the Marines and earning the chance to serve his country and would not trade it in for a more traditional 9-5 job.

"I think he has made a good choice with his career. It matches him perfectly," Johnson said. "I think he loves it, I really do."

"I definitely do," Chambers replied with a smile.

Ellie