Youngstown native loves Marines, music

Published:Wednesday, January 9, 2008

By William K. Alcorn (Contact)

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Writing and recording hip-hop music is what consumes Marine Corps gunnery Sgt. Lionel Saulsberry when he’s not making sure fellow Marines in Iraq get their letters and care packages from home.

Saulsberry, a Youngstown native and graduate of The Rayen School, is operations chief at the Al Taqaddum military post office. He has been in Iraq since February 2007.

As operations chief, he “pretty much makes sure the Marines are doing what they are supposed to be doing” in getting the mail out as quickly as possible to the 150 units that his post office serves.

A former Marine Corps boot camp drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., Saulsberry, who enlisted Dec. 18, 1994, talked about his love of the Marine Corps, music, family and country during a telephone interview from Iraq.

Saulsberry, 32, is a son of Lionel and Jean Saulsberry of Youngstown. He has four siblings: Michael Saulsberry of Youngstown, Ronald Saulsberry of Campbell, LaFaunde Burnette of Youngstown and Jessica Saulsberry of Austintown.

His current permanent duty station is Butler Marine Base in Okinawa, Japan, where his wife, Denequa, and sons, Miles, 9, and Noah, 8, live.

While at Rayen, he was a member of the track team, running the 110 meter high hurdles and 300 meter low hurdles. “I still have a scar on my knee from hitting a hurdle during a track meet with Chaney,” he said.

Saulsberry, who is black, said growing up in Youngstown was “a good experience. It taught me how to grow up and be a man. I was in a lot of different places all over Youngstown, and I did not run into prejudice growing up. I didn’t experience it.”

He has dedicated a song, “Steel Valley,” to the city he said he still loves. He has recorded the song, which he said “pretty much talks about Youngstown, and what a wonderful city it was and is.”

Saulsberry does not have a lot of contact with local Iraqis, so doesn’t have much firsthand information about what they are thinking and feeling.

However, he said the area where he is stationed is “definitely quieter” than it was when he arrived last February.

He works seven days a week, with some very long hours, especially during the holiday season. He said his post office received 258,000 pounds of mail on Dec. 13 alone, and has processed 28 million pounds of mail during his deployment to date.

Despite e-mail and real-time video conferences, the old-fashioned mail — letters and care packages — remain very important ways for the troops to keep in contact with people back home, Saulsberry said.

“Letters allow us to see our child’s or parents’ or grandparents’ handwriting. It’s something to keep ... something you can put in your pocket and pull out and look at anytime you want,” Saulsberry said.

“This is the longest time I’ve been away from my family. That’s the hardest part of being here. I was used to a routine with my family, with my boys involved in basketball, music, karate and baseball,” he said.

He has been to Okinawa only once to see his wife and children since last February.

While in Iraq, he spends his spare time writing hip-hop lyrics and music, something he did even before enlisting in the Marine Corps.

He said he and his wife are getting ready to market an album of hip-hop music titled “Maddness,” which was independently produced. He said a distribution company is working on getting it into stores.

He said the title, “Maddness,” reflects his anger with the direction hip-hop music is going, which he said for the most part no longer has a message behind it. He said there is a theme for each song on his album.

In addition, Saulsberry has been going to school while in the Marine Corps, studying criminal justice. He plans to stay in the Marine Corps for at least 20 years.

“I love the Marine Corps. I love the camaraderie, and I love the uniform,” he admitted.

In addition to being a drill instructor from 2003-05, Saulsberry was stationed in Sicily for three years, which he described as a fabulous experience; and at the Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni on the Japanese mainland.

Music has always been a part of Lionel’s life, said his mother, Jean.

He sang in his high school chorus and in the choir at Heavenly Place Church of God in Christ on Catherine Street. He even had a rap group in his senior year in high school, his mother said.

“We write back and forth and he calls often,” his mother said.

“He is limited as to what he can say, but I know he is excited to be there. ... He is pleased to be there making a difference,” she said.

“I didn’t want him to go. But I pray a lot and put it in God’s hands. I know He will take care of him, and Lionel knows the Lord too, so that helps,” she said.

“We are very proud of our son for being a good Marine and a good father and a good man,” she said.

alcorn@vindy.com

Ellie