thedrifter
10-18-06, 11:34 AM
Marine's call alerts family of serious wound
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
By Lynn Moore
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Call it a mother's intuition. Call it coincidence if you want.
But Diane Musk's stomach churned on Sunday when her husband wanted to take down the American flag flying in their Egelston Township yard.
Terry Musk didn't want the flag to get torn up in winter's cruel winds, so he called out to Diane that he was headed outside to take it down. That's when her stomach churned, and a feeling of uneasiness took hold of her as she thought about her stepson, Aaron, who is serving with the Marines in Iraq.
She told her husband to leave the flag up.
"I said 'I feel like that flag's protecting him. Can we just leave it up until he's home?' " Diane Musk recalled this morning.
And so he did.
Looking back on the events that have since unfolded, Musk is confounded by the uneasiness she felt -- and, taking it one step further, if somehow that flag really did protect Aaron, 22.
It wasn't two hours after the Sunday afternoon flag incident that the phone rang and Terry reached to answer. Caller I.D. indicated it was the "U.S. Government" on the line -- not a good feeling when your son, a sharpshooter in the U.S. Marines infantry, just deployed to Iraq three weeks earlier.
"He picked up the phone and said 'Oh my God,' " Musk said.
To Terry Musk's surprise, the voice on the other end of the phone was his son's, slurred and half-a-world away, but unmistakably Aaron's. No, he wasn't drunk, Aaron told his father. He had just been shot in the leg.
He was in a hospital and was violating the rules when he reached for a phone to call his family. He was fine, Aaron tried to assure his father.
"Evidently he wasn't supposed to call," said Diane Musk, who is a Chronicle advertising manager. "But good for him. I'm glad he did."
The phone call was brief, enough to rattle his parents who were anxious to know more. What happened? How was he really? Where was he? Ten minutes later, someone from the hospital -- realizing Aaron had made the unauthorized call -- called the Musks with sketchy information.
Aaron had been in a jeep convoy that had stopped along a roadway. The Marines exited their vehicles. One shot was fired at them. Lance Cpl. Aaron Musk's leg was shattered.
The hospital employee promised to call again, once Aaron had been through surgery and stabilized.
And then the wait began. The Musks waited through the night to hear more.
"You just keep thinking about him laying somewhere," Diane Musk said.
They waited throughout Monday, and still heard nothing. Thoughts returned to the events of Sunday. Wouldn't it have been right about the time that Aaron was shot when Diane had that uneasy feeling come over her? What would have happened if Terry had taken that flag down?
"Maybe it's silly," she said. "I think it's probably a woman thing."
In the meantime, Aaron's family was frantically trying to learn more. They tried in vain to get information through the American Red Cross's Armed Forces Emergency Services division. Then another mother with a son in the Marines managed finally to get a phone number for a Marine warrant officer in Germany who serves as a liaison between families and injured Marines treated there.
The warrant officer tracked down Aaron and learned he was in a hospital in Balad, Iraq, a hotspot north of Baghdad where more than 100 people have been brutally murdered or disappeared in sectarian fighting in recent days.
The warrant officer called the Musks to say that Aaron was in "good spirits," that his femur would require repeated surgeries and that he was expected to be transferred to Germany.
It was the emotional boost the Musks were seeking.
"When someone tells you he's in good spirits, you can picture the Aaron you know, telling jokes, flirting with the nurses," Musk said.
Aaron was a year out of Orchard View High School when he enlisted in the Marines in the summer of 2005. He had been studying law enforcement at Muskegon Community College with a goal of becoming a police officer when a Marine recruiter caught up with him.
"He felt it was the best way to get his schooling paid for," said his mother, Janet Guss of Egelston Township.
He signed up for the Marine Reserves, graduating from basic training at Camp Pendleton near San Diego in May. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines A Company, 1st Platoon.
Though Guss said she didn't like the idea of Aaron joining the military, she supported his decision.
"It was a scary thing to find out it was what he wanted to do," Guss said. "But I respected his wishes."
She said she was devastated to learn of his injury, but was relieved to get a call from him this morning. He told her he's in Germany, and will be returning to the United States on Friday for surgery to insert a titanium rod in his leg.
"I feel better now that he's out of Iraq," Guss said. "He said while he was in the hospital there he could hear the mortar shells outside."
Diane Musk said she was hoping that his wounds would prompt Aaron to leave the Marines and return home. After a phone call he placed this morning to his dad, Musk isn't so sure he will.
"He said 'They're trying to get me to opt out (of the Marines),"' Musk said. "And he said 'I'm not. I'm not quitting."'
Ellie
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
By Lynn Moore
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Call it a mother's intuition. Call it coincidence if you want.
But Diane Musk's stomach churned on Sunday when her husband wanted to take down the American flag flying in their Egelston Township yard.
Terry Musk didn't want the flag to get torn up in winter's cruel winds, so he called out to Diane that he was headed outside to take it down. That's when her stomach churned, and a feeling of uneasiness took hold of her as she thought about her stepson, Aaron, who is serving with the Marines in Iraq.
She told her husband to leave the flag up.
"I said 'I feel like that flag's protecting him. Can we just leave it up until he's home?' " Diane Musk recalled this morning.
And so he did.
Looking back on the events that have since unfolded, Musk is confounded by the uneasiness she felt -- and, taking it one step further, if somehow that flag really did protect Aaron, 22.
It wasn't two hours after the Sunday afternoon flag incident that the phone rang and Terry reached to answer. Caller I.D. indicated it was the "U.S. Government" on the line -- not a good feeling when your son, a sharpshooter in the U.S. Marines infantry, just deployed to Iraq three weeks earlier.
"He picked up the phone and said 'Oh my God,' " Musk said.
To Terry Musk's surprise, the voice on the other end of the phone was his son's, slurred and half-a-world away, but unmistakably Aaron's. No, he wasn't drunk, Aaron told his father. He had just been shot in the leg.
He was in a hospital and was violating the rules when he reached for a phone to call his family. He was fine, Aaron tried to assure his father.
"Evidently he wasn't supposed to call," said Diane Musk, who is a Chronicle advertising manager. "But good for him. I'm glad he did."
The phone call was brief, enough to rattle his parents who were anxious to know more. What happened? How was he really? Where was he? Ten minutes later, someone from the hospital -- realizing Aaron had made the unauthorized call -- called the Musks with sketchy information.
Aaron had been in a jeep convoy that had stopped along a roadway. The Marines exited their vehicles. One shot was fired at them. Lance Cpl. Aaron Musk's leg was shattered.
The hospital employee promised to call again, once Aaron had been through surgery and stabilized.
And then the wait began. The Musks waited through the night to hear more.
"You just keep thinking about him laying somewhere," Diane Musk said.
They waited throughout Monday, and still heard nothing. Thoughts returned to the events of Sunday. Wouldn't it have been right about the time that Aaron was shot when Diane had that uneasy feeling come over her? What would have happened if Terry had taken that flag down?
"Maybe it's silly," she said. "I think it's probably a woman thing."
In the meantime, Aaron's family was frantically trying to learn more. They tried in vain to get information through the American Red Cross's Armed Forces Emergency Services division. Then another mother with a son in the Marines managed finally to get a phone number for a Marine warrant officer in Germany who serves as a liaison between families and injured Marines treated there.
The warrant officer tracked down Aaron and learned he was in a hospital in Balad, Iraq, a hotspot north of Baghdad where more than 100 people have been brutally murdered or disappeared in sectarian fighting in recent days.
The warrant officer called the Musks to say that Aaron was in "good spirits," that his femur would require repeated surgeries and that he was expected to be transferred to Germany.
It was the emotional boost the Musks were seeking.
"When someone tells you he's in good spirits, you can picture the Aaron you know, telling jokes, flirting with the nurses," Musk said.
Aaron was a year out of Orchard View High School when he enlisted in the Marines in the summer of 2005. He had been studying law enforcement at Muskegon Community College with a goal of becoming a police officer when a Marine recruiter caught up with him.
"He felt it was the best way to get his schooling paid for," said his mother, Janet Guss of Egelston Township.
He signed up for the Marine Reserves, graduating from basic training at Camp Pendleton near San Diego in May. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines A Company, 1st Platoon.
Though Guss said she didn't like the idea of Aaron joining the military, she supported his decision.
"It was a scary thing to find out it was what he wanted to do," Guss said. "But I respected his wishes."
She said she was devastated to learn of his injury, but was relieved to get a call from him this morning. He told her he's in Germany, and will be returning to the United States on Friday for surgery to insert a titanium rod in his leg.
"I feel better now that he's out of Iraq," Guss said. "He said while he was in the hospital there he could hear the mortar shells outside."
Diane Musk said she was hoping that his wounds would prompt Aaron to leave the Marines and return home. After a phone call he placed this morning to his dad, Musk isn't so sure he will.
"He said 'They're trying to get me to opt out (of the Marines),"' Musk said. "And he said 'I'm not. I'm not quitting."'
Ellie