thedrifter
10-01-07, 06:54 AM
Marine: 'I wanted a big challenge. I got it'
By Corrinne Hess | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 10/1/2007 6:23 AM
Chicago Daily Herald, IL
Two years ago, Brandon Hope didn't know what he wanted.
College wasn't the immediate answer. Neither was a full-time job at a local store.
So on Jan. 17, 2006, the 23-year-old enlisted in the Marines.
"I felt like a zombie before I joined," he said Sunday, sitting on the front porch of his mother's Antioch home. "I saw the Marines as an elite force. I wanted a big challenge. I got it."
Like everyone else, Hope was fully aware of the ongoing war and figured enlisting would likely mean deployment.
He was correct.
In February, one year into his training as a helicopter mechanic, Hope's unit was deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, where he spent the last seven months.
"I wanted to go over there and do my part," he said. "And since I've been, my mindset has really changed. It made me more grateful for our freedoms."
Now a Marine corporal, Hope said his unit and many of the American soldiers in Iraq are serving as mediators in the country's civil war. He felt welcome by the Iraqi people.
"I think we are still doing some good over there," Hope said. "I also think getting out is going to be a long, drawn out process. A lot of money is being spent on bases over there. It isn't going to end soon."
Hope, a 2002 graduate of Antioch Community High School, is home this week on leave. He will return to Jacksonville, N.C., Friday where his unit will spend the next year. And then, it is back to Iraq.
While he is prepared for a second tour, his mother, Gerri Pokorny, isn't.
Pokorny's reaction to her son's decision to join the Marines was, "The Marines? Why the Marines?"
"But I knew it was something he just had to do for himself," she said. "His father, Michael, died in 2004. After that, Brandon just drifted."
Pokorny took some comfort in her son's deployment by the twice-weekly e-mails she received from him. But about a month ago, several weeks had gone by and there had been no word. All outgoing communication had been shut down where Hope was. Meanwhile, Pokorny was hearing reports of a group of Marines being killed in a helicopter crash.
It was every mother's worst nightmare, and something Pokorny had seen through the eyes of her sister, Kate Jansky, whose son, Ben, 28, was killed in Iraq in 2005.
"I didn't want to feel that," Pokorny said. "I was just praying and praying. My husband had already been taken. Please don't take my son."
She imagined the worst and tried to stay busy. One day, while shopping for fabric, Pokorny's cell phone rang. It was Hope telling her he was OK.
"I couldn't stop crying," she said.
Now that he's home with her this week, and back in the United States for a year, Pokorny said she can rest a little easier.
"When he came home last week, my sister was there to see him," she said. "She hugged him so hard, and then hugged me from behind and said 'We've got him home, Gerri.' There is just a connection there that is hard to explain."
Ellie
By Corrinne Hess | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 10/1/2007 6:23 AM
Chicago Daily Herald, IL
Two years ago, Brandon Hope didn't know what he wanted.
College wasn't the immediate answer. Neither was a full-time job at a local store.
So on Jan. 17, 2006, the 23-year-old enlisted in the Marines.
"I felt like a zombie before I joined," he said Sunday, sitting on the front porch of his mother's Antioch home. "I saw the Marines as an elite force. I wanted a big challenge. I got it."
Like everyone else, Hope was fully aware of the ongoing war and figured enlisting would likely mean deployment.
He was correct.
In February, one year into his training as a helicopter mechanic, Hope's unit was deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, where he spent the last seven months.
"I wanted to go over there and do my part," he said. "And since I've been, my mindset has really changed. It made me more grateful for our freedoms."
Now a Marine corporal, Hope said his unit and many of the American soldiers in Iraq are serving as mediators in the country's civil war. He felt welcome by the Iraqi people.
"I think we are still doing some good over there," Hope said. "I also think getting out is going to be a long, drawn out process. A lot of money is being spent on bases over there. It isn't going to end soon."
Hope, a 2002 graduate of Antioch Community High School, is home this week on leave. He will return to Jacksonville, N.C., Friday where his unit will spend the next year. And then, it is back to Iraq.
While he is prepared for a second tour, his mother, Gerri Pokorny, isn't.
Pokorny's reaction to her son's decision to join the Marines was, "The Marines? Why the Marines?"
"But I knew it was something he just had to do for himself," she said. "His father, Michael, died in 2004. After that, Brandon just drifted."
Pokorny took some comfort in her son's deployment by the twice-weekly e-mails she received from him. But about a month ago, several weeks had gone by and there had been no word. All outgoing communication had been shut down where Hope was. Meanwhile, Pokorny was hearing reports of a group of Marines being killed in a helicopter crash.
It was every mother's worst nightmare, and something Pokorny had seen through the eyes of her sister, Kate Jansky, whose son, Ben, 28, was killed in Iraq in 2005.
"I didn't want to feel that," Pokorny said. "I was just praying and praying. My husband had already been taken. Please don't take my son."
She imagined the worst and tried to stay busy. One day, while shopping for fabric, Pokorny's cell phone rang. It was Hope telling her he was OK.
"I couldn't stop crying," she said.
Now that he's home with her this week, and back in the United States for a year, Pokorny said she can rest a little easier.
"When he came home last week, my sister was there to see him," she said. "She hugged him so hard, and then hugged me from behind and said 'We've got him home, Gerri.' There is just a connection there that is hard to explain."
Ellie