thedrifter
09-30-05, 06:30 AM
Homecoming bittersweet for Ohio Marines coming to Camp Lejeune
By CONNIE MABIN
Associated Press Writer
CLEVELAND — Awaiting Navy Reservist Frederick Christian Anselm at his family's Ohio home is a belated birthday party. Lance Cpl. Nicholas Kehl will get nine month's worth of hugs and kisses from his relatives.
"Oh, my gosh. We just can't keep the smiles off our faces," said mom Linda Kehl. "The anticipation is wonderful. We're just counting down the hours."
For 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines families, Friday's homecoming to Camp Lejeune, N.C., will be a bittersweet ending to a tragic tour of duty in Iraq. The hard hit unit deployed in January suffered about 150 injuries and 48 deaths, including 14 Marines killed in back-to-back attacks within a week.
"I had hoped to be greeting my son," said Paul Schroeder, whose son Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder II was killed in August. "I see all this happening and I'm glad all these guys are coming home, but I wanted him to be there too, so it's difficult to take."
Edward Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq with eight other members of his Columbus-based Lima Company, which reports to the "3/25," the battalion based in Brook Park near Cleveland that captured the nation's heart after the deadly summer.
About 900 Marines and sailors serving with the battalion are due for a low-key arrival Friday. They will be debriefed for several days before returning to their various companies in Ohio, West Virginia and New York for more public festivities.
The Marines suggested that families not travel to North Carolina because of the debriefing.
Frederick Anselm's sailor son assigned to the battalion as a medic has been at Camp Lejeune since the end of August when Army replacements arrived in Iraq. When he returns home with the battalion in the next week or so, he'll find his family ready to celebrate his 35th birthday, which occurred May 27.
"Now that he's back, out of harm's way, I can sleep at night, not get antsy every time the phone rings," said his father, of Olmsted Township.
In Brook Park, a large memorial of homemade signs, heartfelt letters, flags, photos and other items tied to a chain-link fence in August has been disassembled, the contents stored inside battalion headquarters. On Thursday, the Marines put a large welcome home message on the fence.
The impending homecoming has, at least temporarily, lifted a cloud of grief.
"Thank God," breathed Lucky Harris. Her support group Mothers of Military is still deciding what it will do to celebrate the unit's return, which she said gives hope to all military families and at the same time is a symbol of sadness.
"When you have a tragedy that brings the hard-knocks you realize some don't come home," Harris said. "I cannot imagine the emotion these families who lost children are going through right now."
The emotions are bittersweet, said Paul Schroeder.
Until Aug. 2, the day his son known as "Augie" died, he too had been planning a homecoming.
It was going to be a big bonfire, complete with a lamb roast in the family's large backyard near the vegetable garden.
"Hopefully on one of those glorious October days and we were going to invite the immediate world," the father said with a heavy voice before pausing to collect himself. "I got the garden. I got the firewood. That's about all I got."
Ellie
By CONNIE MABIN
Associated Press Writer
CLEVELAND — Awaiting Navy Reservist Frederick Christian Anselm at his family's Ohio home is a belated birthday party. Lance Cpl. Nicholas Kehl will get nine month's worth of hugs and kisses from his relatives.
"Oh, my gosh. We just can't keep the smiles off our faces," said mom Linda Kehl. "The anticipation is wonderful. We're just counting down the hours."
For 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines families, Friday's homecoming to Camp Lejeune, N.C., will be a bittersweet ending to a tragic tour of duty in Iraq. The hard hit unit deployed in January suffered about 150 injuries and 48 deaths, including 14 Marines killed in back-to-back attacks within a week.
"I had hoped to be greeting my son," said Paul Schroeder, whose son Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder II was killed in August. "I see all this happening and I'm glad all these guys are coming home, but I wanted him to be there too, so it's difficult to take."
Edward Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq with eight other members of his Columbus-based Lima Company, which reports to the "3/25," the battalion based in Brook Park near Cleveland that captured the nation's heart after the deadly summer.
About 900 Marines and sailors serving with the battalion are due for a low-key arrival Friday. They will be debriefed for several days before returning to their various companies in Ohio, West Virginia and New York for more public festivities.
The Marines suggested that families not travel to North Carolina because of the debriefing.
Frederick Anselm's sailor son assigned to the battalion as a medic has been at Camp Lejeune since the end of August when Army replacements arrived in Iraq. When he returns home with the battalion in the next week or so, he'll find his family ready to celebrate his 35th birthday, which occurred May 27.
"Now that he's back, out of harm's way, I can sleep at night, not get antsy every time the phone rings," said his father, of Olmsted Township.
In Brook Park, a large memorial of homemade signs, heartfelt letters, flags, photos and other items tied to a chain-link fence in August has been disassembled, the contents stored inside battalion headquarters. On Thursday, the Marines put a large welcome home message on the fence.
The impending homecoming has, at least temporarily, lifted a cloud of grief.
"Thank God," breathed Lucky Harris. Her support group Mothers of Military is still deciding what it will do to celebrate the unit's return, which she said gives hope to all military families and at the same time is a symbol of sadness.
"When you have a tragedy that brings the hard-knocks you realize some don't come home," Harris said. "I cannot imagine the emotion these families who lost children are going through right now."
The emotions are bittersweet, said Paul Schroeder.
Until Aug. 2, the day his son known as "Augie" died, he too had been planning a homecoming.
It was going to be a big bonfire, complete with a lamb roast in the family's large backyard near the vegetable garden.
"Hopefully on one of those glorious October days and we were going to invite the immediate world," the father said with a heavy voice before pausing to collect himself. "I got the garden. I got the firewood. That's about all I got."
Ellie