Iraq casts a long shadow on Christmas





By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 25, 2003

CAMP PENDLETON – In the weeks and months ahead, Julie Webb probably will again say goodbye to her Marine husband and again raise two young daughters on her own, again hold down a job while again steeling herself from the fear of the unknown.

But this Christmas day, she and Sgt. Chris Webb are concentrating on the here and now because that is all they can count on.

"We take one day at a time and try to spend as much time as possible together because we know he might be leaving soon," Julie said.

"It's not so much sad, and it doesn't really put a damper on the holidays. You just live with it."

Julie isn't alone in the prospect of being on her own – nor in her stoic, keep-the-home-fires-burning spirit that prevents the holidays from collapsing under the weight of the unknown.

Thousands of Marines from Camp Pendleton and the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station will deploy early next year to Iraq, where fear of weapons of mass destruction and the Republican Guards has been replaced by roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

The sheer randomness of the attacks has instilled a level of anxiety among military families that earlier combat can't match. An opposing army of thousands isn't intimidating. It's the lone sniper that grips the imagination.

Outwardly, life at Camp Pendleton and Miramar this Christmas morning will be about as normal as can be.

The Webb girls – 2-year-old Shaelyn and 6-year-old Alicia – will be burning up the sidewalks in Pendleton's Deluz Housing area on their new bikes that their blurry-eyed parents put together Christmas Eve.

Alicia will be riding her first big-girl's bike, a purple peddler with training wheels. Shaelyn will be trailing on a red tricycle.

Julie plans to shoot video to send to the grandparents. Chris will be coaching his daughters – and engraving every moment in his memory to be replayed again and again should he deploy.

But the day will be normal only in appearance. The reality is that relatively few other Americans face deployment to Iraq.

It is a time of togetherness and thoughts of loneliness. Of pride tinged with worry about what lies ahead. Of love of family, country and the Corps.

Though the Marines haven't announced who will be deployed to Iraq for at least a seven-month tour, one can tell from the tone of his voice that Webb expects to be leaving.

"Knowing that I might be going makes this Christmas more meaningful. I feel more appreciative of my time with my family now than ever," said Webb, a motor transport chief with the 1st Force Service Support Group.

"This (Christmas) just means so much to me because we don't know about the future," said Webb, 26, of Warren, Texas. This could be his second tour in Iraq.

The Marines and their families talk around what they cannot control. There is simply nothing to be gained by that. Since the Iraq war began in March, more than 460 U.S. servicemen and women have died and nearly 2,700 have been wounded or injured.

Since Dec. 12, at least 11 Americans have been killed, including three soldiers who died in a roadside bombing yesterday.

More than 50,000 San Diego-area based Marines and sailors went to war in Iraq, and many thousands of them left loved ones behind. Sixty-two Marines and sailors with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton died; 230 were wounded.

It is those numbers that are in the backs of minds.

"You don't know what can happen," said Julie, 24, the daughter of a career Marine.

"I think I am a little more apprehensive this time about him going over. Before the war, I told him that he can't let anything happen to him because he has to come home to his girls. I'm going to tell him that again."

What could be a cloud over the holidays is instead spurring the Marines and their families to enjoy life in the present.

Bonnie Clark, 21, a supply sergeant at Camp Pendleton, and her husband Alex, 23, planned to spend today in Las Vegas. The city embodies the couple's live-now-worry-later thinking, which they say is the only way to deal with forces beyond their control.

"What are you going to do?" asked Alex, a former Marine, as he sat on the couch in their Vista home earlier this week, opening Christmas presents under a tree.

"What happens, happens. And you deal with it. You can't let the 'what ifs' run your life. What am I going to do? Tie her up and not let her go?"

Bonnie went to Iraq in early February and returned Sept. 11. She is circumspect.

"If you can't do anything about it, then it's better to go with it," she said. "Plus, this is what we do for a living. If we go, we go."

Sgt. Jeremy Hollenbeck and his wife, Heather, know exactly what the 2,200 troops from Camp Pendleton's 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are going through this Christmas.

Hollenbeck spent last Christmas in the Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier Constellation doing intelligence work for VMFA-242, the Miramar-based F/A-18 squadron. Heather remained in Santee.

Being away for the holidays is something of a tradition for Camp Pendleton Marines these days.

The 2,200 Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit were fighting in Afghanistan in 2001. They were home last Christmas, but left shortly after that for Iraq. Several hundred troops from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters were gone last Christmas.

The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit missed Christmas at home in 2001 as well and is gone again this holiday season.

"Last year was kind of leap year Christmas," said Hollenbeck, 27, from Virginia Beach, Va.

"We didn't put up any decorations because I was gone, and my wife didn't feel like celebrating. This year, the house and tree are decorated. We love Christmas and are making up for kind of missing Christmas last year."

Hollenbeck promised himself last Chrismas to make every moment home as special as it could be. He said that meant putting the possibility of a deployment on "the back burner" and "just enjoying now."

"If he is called, we'll deal with it," Heather said.

In this Marine Corps lifestyle, "every day is treated like gold," she said, "because there are no guarantees. What he is doing is more important than my inconvenience."

She calls herself Jeremy's "support group."

"I can't be selfish. He was a Marine before I met him, and I have to accept this. That was part of the deal."

Julie Webb, should her husband be deployed, likely will recall the advice her mother gave on how to be a Marine wife.

"I asked my mom how she managed all those years with my dad being away," Julie said. "She said that it is hard and that you have to take one day at time.

"She said that at the end of the night, when the kids are taken care of and the house is clean and the bills are paid, that's when I can let my guard down and cry in my bed if I need to."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...25marines.html

Sempers,

Roger