'Everyone we brought out, we brought home'

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION BEAUFORT: The Silver Eagles of VMFA-115 are all back from the war.

By Rob Dewig
Carolina Morning News

Cpl. Forist Brockway spent Wednesday night awake, dreaming of the moment he'd get off that plane and be able to see his family.

He hadn't ever seen it before, you see.

He tossed and turned and got no sleep. His stomach felt tied in knots. Everything focused in on that dreamed-of moment, seeing his 5-day-old daughter for the first time.

He's lucky he didn't trip down the stairs.

He saw his wife soon after he stepped from the plane and onto the flight line at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. He saw the tiny pink bundle wrapped in her arms. And then the tears came.

He walked to them. He looked at his baby, briefly, then hugged his wife, the baby between them.

And he hugged them.

And he hugged them.

"Words can't explain how I feel," Brockway said soon after, his eyes never leaving his new daughter, Erien Grace. "The excitement's overwhelming. I didn't sleep last night, I was too excited. Now, I just want to spend time with my family."

It was the first time he'd ever said that.

"It's more than I ever expected. I'm shaking," he admitted. "I thought about this every day."

You think a lot on an aircraft carrier. There isn't much else to do.

Brockway and the other 200 or so members of the Beaufort-based fighter squadron, VMFA-115, the Silver Eagles, spent the past six months on the USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. They came home in two waves, Thursday and Friday.

The first few months on the Truman were mostly peaceful, although never quiet. The past few were filled with bombing runs. No matter what, no matter the Marine, all six months were filled by work.

"It's work 18 to 20 hours a day straight, seven days a week, continuous work," said HM2 John Loniak, one of four Navy medics assigned to the squadron. "There's no relaxation at all. As a civilian, and even on the air station, you have weekends off, you get to relax, you get used to it. On the aircraft carrier, there are no days off.

"But we survived it, we got home. And no, I don't want to do it again," he said, laughing.

Loniak, like Brockway, spent his first moments back at MCAS hugging his family. He hugged his wife, Karen, his 4-year-old daughter Sierra and, finally, his 6-month-old son Derek, who was only 10 days old when his dad left for the carrier.

Derek had changed a little since then.

He drooled more, for one thing, all over Dad's regulation uniform. He played with shiny things, like those medals or whatever all over Dad's chest and shoulders. And that flag Dad proudly held, well, that just begged to be chewed on.

Loniak could only grin at it all.

"When I left he was 10 days old, so small he hardly even opened his eyes. How's it feel? It feels awesome to see my son, my daughter, my wife. It's a feeling you can't put into words. And you know what the best thing is? Everyone we brought out, we brought home."

Spoken like a true medic.

Loniak even brought a souvenir home. Carried proudly over his shoulder, where Derek just couldn't help but grab it, was an American flag carried on two separate missions over Iraq by squadron pilots. Loniak wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but he was certainly proud to have it.

HM3 Darren McPhee, another of the squadron's Navy corpsmen, said there's no feeling quite like coming home, getting off that big boat, touching solid ground again.

Oh, and add to that watching real TV and listening to real radio.

"It's a world of difference out there," he said. "You don't have radio. You don't have TVs that are a natural color. You have TVs that are multi-colored, blues that should be green. You get whatever TV channel we're near, and sometimes they don't speak English.

"We've been gone so long, I heard a band formed and broke up while we were gone."

Certainly, several holidays came and went while they were gone.

Lauryn Wootten, Gunnery Sgt. Michael Wootten's eldest daughter, held several balloons for her father's return.

One was of an American flag. Another, of course, said "welcome home." The others were for Christmas, Easter, New Year's, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, his 40th birthday, and his 16th wedding anniversary. Wootten had missed them all.

"I probably missed him most on Christmas," Lauryn said. "He used to make breakfast in the morning. But our grandparents were here to fill a little bit of the void."

Lauryn said she and her younger brother and sister "got into a routine" with their dad gone. "Now, we have to adjust now that he's back. But that's not a bad adjustment to have to make."

Reporter Rob Dewig can be reached at 837-5255, ext. 107, or at rdewig@lowcountrynow.com


Copyright 2002 Carolina Morning News



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