Atlantic City native spends Christmas in Iraq

By MICHAEL CLARK
(Published: December 25, 2007)

Marine Sgt. Randolph Hull could have been home for Christmas. He could have been with his mother and sister today visiting his large family of aunts, uncles and nearly 30 cousins as they do every year. He might have even been able to coerce his mother to cook his favorite Manhattan clam chowder, the same she made him last year.

But it was Hull's Christmas spirit that kept him in Iraq. It was an altruistic attitude some develop around the holiday season that he displayed in September when his tour of duty was complete.

"If I stay, it keeps someone else from having to come in," Hull said from Iraq during a phone interview Monday of his decision to volunteer to extend his deployment by six months.

Hull, a 23-year-old Atlantic City native and Oakcrest High School graduate, has been in the Marines for four years and was deployed to Iraq in February. Since then, he has been stationed in Anbar province, working as a mechanic to fix heavy military equipment such as cranes and bulldozers. He takes pride in his work and particularly enjoys the fast pace of the workload, something he doesn't have the opportunity to experience at home.

"He has a heart of gold," says his mother, Mary-Ann Hauck, of Ventnor. "I wish he was here, but there's not much I can do about that. I'm happy he's out there helping people."

Hauck was able to see her son last Christmas, two months before he was deployed to Iraq. Hull had missed the two previous Christmases while on tours of duty in other foreign countries, and it was "a treat" to see him at home exchanging gifts with his sister, Amanda.

"We have a really big family and he is close with all of them," she said Monday. "If anything, being away from them on the holiday is what bothers him."

Although it's nothing like being home for the holidays, Hull and his platoon of 45 Marines have worked to make their surroundings more festive for the holiday, setting up plastic Christmas trees and lining their barracks with makeshift Christmas lights, attaching dozens of glow sticks to a few long strings.

Add to that the carols being played on nearby radios, the plans to watch movies with his fellow soldiers, the hundreds of gifts sent to them by groups like Soliders' Angels and the relentless challenges to play Spades, and Hull says there are moments when it doesn't feel like he's at war.

"It's pretty tough not being home, but we really try to keep our minds off it," Hull said. "I miss my family, and I want to see them, but these guys are a good substitute."

The fast pace of his job does not slow much for the holidays. Just when it starts feeling like Christmas, the festivities are broken up to fix equipment needed for another mission.

That work will continue until his additional six months is complete in March, a month before his sister's wedding.

"If I had to choose, I'd rather be home for (the wedding)," he said. "Right now, there's no place I'd rather be than with my fellow Marines."

To e-mail Michael Clark at The Press:

Michael.Clark@pressofac.com

Ellie