thedrifter
03-09-03, 01:36 PM
By VINCENT MORRIS
WARRIOR AGAINST EVIL:
Long Island Marine Maj. Dave Andersen is ready for battle -
carrying mementos from his time digging at Ground Zero.
Vincent Morris
March 7, 2003 -- WHEN Marine Maj. Dave Andersen leaves this dusty capital city to head into battle, he'll be carrying mementos from Ground Zero - photos, T-shirts and other keepsakes given to him by friends he made when he helped search for victims in the rubble of the collapsed towers.
Andersen, who was at a military conference in California on 9/11, drove cross-country with three Marine buddies in 43 hours, "desperate to do something, anything, to help."
He joined the rescue and recovery effort, digging and coordinating traffic - and, in a solemn ceremony he'll never forget, escorting the remains of NYPD Sgt. Michael Curtin, an ex-Marine and Gulf War veteran, out of the pit.
When he learned in January that he would be heading to Kuwait to await the start of the expected war with Iraq, Andersen told his friends he would carry the memory of those who died in the terror attacks into battle with him.
"I promised them I would carry it forward for them; I would take their names to foreign soil" to ensure that the NYPD and the FDNY have a presence in the war against terrorism, said the career Marine, his eyes tearing up.
"I still get choked up talking about this," he admitted, adding, "I'm not embarrassed."
"The magnitude of those attacks was greater than anything we'd ever seen; it was evil," said Andersen, 38. "We are doing something now because if we don't, our children or their children will have to deal with it."
Andersen, a Long Islander who was born upstate, carries photos - hundreds of them - of his wife, Sallie, and their three children, Heather, 15; Nicolas, 13; and Zachary, 5. They're in his laptop computer, along with scores of pictures from Ground Zero.
When "the political stuff ends" and the war begins, it will be Andersen's first time in combat. Although he's spent 13 of his 17 years in the Marines in field artillery combat positions, the Pentagon brass has given him a new job - helping to get more than 660 reporters "embedded" into U.S. and British units in the Middle East.
His goal is to make it to Baghdad with other victorious American troops - and his mementos.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2003 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sempers,
Roger
WARRIOR AGAINST EVIL:
Long Island Marine Maj. Dave Andersen is ready for battle -
carrying mementos from his time digging at Ground Zero.
Vincent Morris
March 7, 2003 -- WHEN Marine Maj. Dave Andersen leaves this dusty capital city to head into battle, he'll be carrying mementos from Ground Zero - photos, T-shirts and other keepsakes given to him by friends he made when he helped search for victims in the rubble of the collapsed towers.
Andersen, who was at a military conference in California on 9/11, drove cross-country with three Marine buddies in 43 hours, "desperate to do something, anything, to help."
He joined the rescue and recovery effort, digging and coordinating traffic - and, in a solemn ceremony he'll never forget, escorting the remains of NYPD Sgt. Michael Curtin, an ex-Marine and Gulf War veteran, out of the pit.
When he learned in January that he would be heading to Kuwait to await the start of the expected war with Iraq, Andersen told his friends he would carry the memory of those who died in the terror attacks into battle with him.
"I promised them I would carry it forward for them; I would take their names to foreign soil" to ensure that the NYPD and the FDNY have a presence in the war against terrorism, said the career Marine, his eyes tearing up.
"I still get choked up talking about this," he admitted, adding, "I'm not embarrassed."
"The magnitude of those attacks was greater than anything we'd ever seen; it was evil," said Andersen, 38. "We are doing something now because if we don't, our children or their children will have to deal with it."
Andersen, a Long Islander who was born upstate, carries photos - hundreds of them - of his wife, Sallie, and their three children, Heather, 15; Nicolas, 13; and Zachary, 5. They're in his laptop computer, along with scores of pictures from Ground Zero.
When "the political stuff ends" and the war begins, it will be Andersen's first time in combat. Although he's spent 13 of his 17 years in the Marines in field artillery combat positions, the Pentagon brass has given him a new job - helping to get more than 660 reporters "embedded" into U.S. and British units in the Middle East.
His goal is to make it to Baghdad with other victorious American troops - and his mementos.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2003 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sempers,
Roger