TwinMom7
Proud Mom of a United States Marine
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Pfc. Vincent Doczy, 22, of Elkhart, one of the Marine reservists serving in Iraq with Engineer Company B, stands with the eight packages he received during mail call earlier this month.
Tribune Photo/FRED DODD
Indiana Flag, Marine Store Delight Troops
DESERT DISPATCH
By FRED DODD
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CAMP CHESTY, Iraq -- An Indiana state flag flew over the South Bend Marines' bivouac area Wednesday for the first time since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
"I received a big envelope that I thought was an IRS audit," said Cpl. Matthew Helm, 24, of Crown Point, Ind.
But the envelope was actually from the governor's office.
"My mother had written to, or contacted Gov. O'Bannon's office, and I received the flag in the mail when we were back at Camp Betio (Kuwait). We never had a place to fly it until now.
"It came with a letter that said something like, 'Since we're serving our country and state, they were happy to provide us a flag to fly wherever we were at,' " Helm said.
Also Wednesday, a Marine Corps exchange opened here. Marines lined up for hours to get inside the crowded medium-sized tent to see what the store had for sale.
"It was about the same size as the one at Camp Tarawa (Kuwait)," said Sgt. Louis Bain II, 28, of Burns Harbor, Ind. "But it didn't seem to have many hygiene items; it was mostly candy."
"They actually had cold Gatorade," said Cpl. James Watterson, 25, of Indianapolis.
"I was going to buy as many as I could carry and drink them 'til my stomach exploded, but they would only let us buy one. It was so cold that my teeth ached. That's how long it's been since I've had anything cold!"
The rest of the day was much of the same for the South Bend Marines, who have now been on active duty for more than three months. Some loaded gravel, others worked on improving other roads, and hospital litter-bearer duty continued, but most of Engineer Company B was looking for ways to stay busy. A dozen Marines played touch football in the sand, others read or wrote letters. There are a lot of books traded back and forth.
Lance Cpl. Greg Swagger, 20, and Cpl. Daniel Gerber, 24, both of Fort Wayne, are Marine Corps reservists with Detachment 1, Communications Company, out of Grissom Air Force Base, near Peru, Ind.
They passed by the South Bend Marines' bivouac site Wednesday. Unlike the South Bend Marines, who flew to Camp Pendleton,Calif., after being activated, the Grissom Marines were bused to Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Their unit was split up upon arrival in Kuwait. Several are serving with 7th Engineer Support Battalion, the South Bend Marines' parent unit here.
"We transported all our communication vehicles -- 16 of them -- in a military C-5 aircraft. Huge ain't the word for that plane," said Swagger. There were 11 Humvees and four 5-tons inside that aircraft."
Gerber said the closest his unit came to seeing action was the day it convoyed from Camp Anderson to Camp Chesty and then made a return trip to Anderson later that evening.
"Our convoy was stopped by four Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopters that landed in the middle of the war in front of us. A while later artillery shelled the heck out of some Iraqi tanks not far from us," he said.
Also Wednesday, Lt. Col. Rick Long, the public affairs officer for the Marine Expeditionary Force, said two-thirds of the 360 journalists who had been embedded with Marine Corps had left their units. Most have returned home, while a few remained in Iraq to cover other stories'
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