Manville mayor's son finishing six-year tour with Marines in Iraq

By PAMELA SROKA-HOLZMANN
Staff Writer

It was in July 2002 — the summer before Joe Zuza Jr.'s senior year at Manville High School — that he told his parents his heart belongs to the Marine Corps.

And now, after nearly six years of serving with the Marines in Iraq, Zuza's mission will soon be accomplished. The 23-year-old soldier is scheduled to return home to the borough in May. His future plans include finishing the Somerset County Police Academy at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg and becoming a law enforcement officer.

Zuza's mother, Mayor Lillian Zuza, is eagerly counting down the months to his arrival and plans a celebration with family members and close friends.

"I can't wait to get my boy into the car and take him home," she said.

On September 11, 2002 — the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon — Joe Zuza signed his military-recruitment papers. In August 2003, he shipped out to Marine Corps basic training. Today, he is a Marine Corps sergeant training military police in Iraq.

"It's been a long road," Lillian Zuza said this week as she talked about her son's service.

Then, she looked down at a photograph of Joe on her office desk at Borough Hall, and said, "I was nauseous to know he was going to be gone. But I'm proud of him. And worried about him."

EARLY ENTRY

Zuza, a single mother of three following the death of her husband in 2005, recalls the exact moment her son expressed serious interest in the military.

Zuza and her late husband, Joe Sr., were sitting in the living room with their family. Their then 17-year-old son asked his parents for permission to enlist in an early entry program that year. Zuza admitted she was reluctant at first, but had to support her son's choice.

"He could have signed up when he turned 18, and I didn't want him to remember that I didn't support him and his goals," Zuza said. "I knew it was inevitable. I couldn't change it, only deal with it."

Zuza delayed her son's departure date so he could attend Police Youth Week in July 2002. There, a young Zuza who had been attending the event since eighth grade, saw the camaraderie among officers and how they treated each other as brothers, the mayor said.

Zuza also often read books about wars from the American Revolution to World War II — of which his grandfather is a veteran.

"The patriotism is in our blood," Lillian Zuza said.

A DIFFERENCE

Lillian Zuza hasn't seen her son since July 2008, when he had five days' leave.

Mother and son keep in regular contact via e-mail, with Joe Zuza signing each one with a nickname his mother gave him as a child: "Love you, Mom. Your little vet, Jo Jo."

During Thanksgiving dinner, Joe Zuza also talked to his family — including siblings Katherine, 26, and Edward, 21 — via speaker phone at the table.

Joe Zuza, who serves as operations chief for Company G, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 8, police-transition team, has worked with officers from the Akashat Police Station to help them become a more professional security force and part of the local community. He said in a news release that the team went to an Iraqi primary school with Iraqi police officers to give them the opportunity to distribute U.S.-donated supplies to pupils.

"This was great," Joe Zuza said in the release. "I think it gave them a new face in the community."

In many parts of rural Iraq, Joe Zuza said that all people know about police authority is the brutality they saw under the Saddam Hussein regime. "These guys are fresh and have a progressive attitude. This gave them a chance to show their human side and let the people know that they're here to help — not to be an oppressive authority figure."

Zuza also described the dramatic changes that he's seen in Iraq during the past four months, noting how local citizens' perception of police has gone from fear or indifference to warmth and hospitality. Working with U.S. government-contracted international police advisers there, the Marines also urged police to venture into other nearby towns and desert settlements to meet citizens and let them know that the new mission of the Iraqi police is to protect and serve, Zuza said in the statement.

"Hopefully after we leave, they will continue on that track," he said.

Ellie