12 March, 2003 (April 3 update is
included)
Nearly eight years ago, Stephanie Loghry was one of two
valedictorians for her graduating class at Tulelake High School.
Today she is somewhere in Kuwait, a supply sergeant
with the 101st Airborne, a unit poised to provide the iron hand should the
velvet glove of diplomacy fail.
Amid the rhetoric and saber-rattling surrounding
weapons inspections in Iraq, with the resultant news blasts blaring the
latest, Stephanie adds something overlooked.
She puts a face to the talk of war.
When she was deployed to Kuwait Feb. 27 — with little
notice, but that’s how the military does things —Stephanie left behind her
husband, Jason, her one-year-old son, Alex, and her parents, Denise and
Dennis Chambers of Tulelake.
Dennis said he found out Stephanie had gone when Jason
called "at midnight."
"He was really excited, so I didn’t find out much from
him," Dennis said Monday. "He said she called it a big desert out there."
"She hasn’t us called yet," said Denise, using a tone
of voice reserved for mothers.
Until that call arrives, Denise has taken to the
Internet, digging through news websites for information on the 101st
Airborne Division and getting tips from friends who watch television
reports.
She was able to discover the 101st is
stationed in Camp New Jersey. Just where Camp New Jersey is remains
unclear. A report Denise found on CNN’s website locates the camp "in the
desert of Kuwait."
Denise said she watches the evening news for
information too, and finds herself "looking at the people they show a lot
more than normal." At times, Denise said, she has had to turn it off.
"They were showing soldiers sending messages to their
families, and that was hard to see," Denise said. "Then a woman came on
and said goodbye to her baby, and I couldn’t watch anymore."
Stephanie entered the military more than four years
ago, after leaving the Klamath Basin and finding work in a plywood mill
while attending school at Lane Community College in Eugene. After four
years there, Denise said Stephanie said "enough is enough."
"She joined the Army to go to school, to get money for
college," Denise said. "She re-enlisted in April."
Stephanie qualified for training to become a sergeant,
and passed her oral examinations before the order to ship out came.
Both Dennis and Denise were hesitant to comment on the
protests against a possible war with Iraq —"We are always going to have
somebody protesting something," Dennis said — yet they admit the Iraq
situation is personal for them.
While avoiding a debate on the issue of war, Denise was
firm in her belief that, if our soldiers are there, we should support
them.
"They are our kids, doing a job they have been asked to
do," Denise said. "Since they are there, people should back them.
"I’m not thinking about this politically," Denise said.
"I think of it with Stephanie and Alex. I worry about my grandbaby.
"He misses her so much," Denise said. "Whenever she
goes away he just cries and cries. He is the one I worry about."
Denise said Alex’s first birthday, March 6, came a week
after Stephanie left for Kuwait.
"She missed his first birthday, and now she may miss
his first walk, his first words."
In the sunlit kitchen of her home on Copic Bay,
Denise’s voice trailed off.
Although their daughter may have to go in harm’s way,
Dennis sums up the situation like a farmer; accepting the facts as he
knows them yet seasoning them with his faith in Stephanie.
"Steph is a survivor, she’ll come out of this all
right," Dennis said. "Women aren’t supposed to be in combat, and she says
she won’t be.
"But they are there, and who knows what will happen."
On Feb. 25, 1991 a Scud missile fired from Iraq struck
a temporary barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The barracks housed reserve
Army units awaiting assignment during the Gulf War.
In the largest single loss of the Desert Storm
campaign, 28 soldiers were killed and 99 wounded in the blast.
Three of the dead were women.
The possibility of chemical weapons, which Iraq has
used in the past, being targeted on advancing American forces further
blurs the distinction between the forward lines and the rear.
In the Klamath Basin, its history so closely
intertwined with veterans who came home from war and sons who never will,
the personal sacrifice of the Chambers is both respected and expected.
Yet that is small comfort to a mother who must wait at
home, combing the Internet for information and squinting at dusty soldiers
on the nightly newscasts for a glimpse of her little girl.
Stephanie, when you get a safe moment, call your Mom.
3 April
Sgt. Loghry found a safe moment and called Denise Chambers March 28. She
said she was fine, and that all goes well. She even emailed a couple of
photographs.
On March 30, CNN reported that rear elements of the 101st
Airborne Division were moved north into Iraq. It is believed Sgt. Loghry
was included in those movements.
Sgt. Stephanie Loghry
HHC 159th AVN BDE
Unit #96128
APO AE 09393-6128
April 3, 2003
She sits on her living room floor, legs crossed, speaking with intense
longing into the tiny cell phone.
She tells her Daddy she loves him, and wants him to
come home soon. She blows a kiss into the phone.
Her name is Natasha Carroll. She is not quite two years
old. The cell phone is her favorite toy these days, said Candice Carroll.
Candice is Mom to Natasha and the wife of Pvt. Shane
Carroll of the Third Infantry Division, currently on duty about 50 miles
south of Baghdad.
While Shane, a former resident of Malin, is overseas
Candice and Natasha wait at the Third Infantry’s home base at Ft. Stewart,
Georgia. Candice spoke by telephone with The Courier Sunday.
"Natasha is doing okay, I guess," said Candice. "She
calls for her Daddy a lot. She goes to the bottom of the stairs and yells
for him, because he is usually upstairs taking a shower."
When asked how she is doing, Candice pauses.
"I don’t want to cry," she said, the sound of tears
coming through the telephone. "I miss him walking through the door, I miss
his blue eyes, as blue as the sky. I miss everything about him.
"It’s hard to be tough."
Candice last heard from Shane March 9, when he called
during a trip into a supply base in Kuwait.
"He was getting some stuff, because he knew he was
leaving," Candice said. "He was real frustrated during that call, because
his unit had been there so long and hadn’t moved. He wanted to get it done
so he could come home."
Shane’s father, Tom Carroll of Malin, hasn’t heard from
Shane since Jan. 6, when he shipped out. Upon hearing the news, Tom went
to the Flower Spot in Merrill and bought a big yellow ribbon and wrapped
it around a large willow tree in front of his home.
In the weeks since, like so many, Tom has become
"glued" to news reports.
"I watch the news more than I should," Tom said. "I’m
worried about it. Somebody is shooting at my son and I can’t do anything
about it."
Tom explained that Shane’s job is driving a Humvee
loaded with ammunition for the Third Division’s M1-A Abrams tanks.
"Shane is right behind the tanks," Tom said. "When the
tanks run out, they come back to him, he doesn’t go out to them.
"He takes a lot of pride in what he’s doing, he commits
himself totally," Tom continued. "He doesn’t like being there, but he’s
doing this for his country."
On Saturday, four soldiers of the Third Division were
killed at a checkpoint when a man drove up in a taxi and reportedly waved
the soldiers closer. As they drew near, the man detonated a bomb.
On Sunday afternoon, the names of the soldiers had yet
to be released. Although outwardly dismissive of the fear, Tom couldn’t
stop pacing the living room of his neatly kept home.
"How do you train a soldier for that?" Tom asked. "How
do you train a soldier for a situation where they hold a baby up while
somebody else fires at you from behind?
"I keep telling myself I sent a boy to war, and a man
will come home."
Late Sunday, the soldiers’ names were released.
Although Shane was spared, four other families were not.
The tension is felt by many, Candice said. She said she
has three friends on the base at Ft. Stewart who, like her, are waiting
for their husbands to come home. One couldn’t handle the stress, and left
to go home to her family.
"She has three little girls," and needed to be around
her family," Candice said. "Shane’s sister is here with me, and that helps
a lot."
Candice wanted to thank the people of Malin, Merrill
and Tulelake for thinking of Shane.
"I am so glad to know we aren’t the only ones who care,
the only ones who pray they all come home," Candice said, tears coming now
without shame. "We are all waiting, and we will wait for as long as it
takes."
Natasha will turn two on June 14. By then, hopefully,
the cell phone will be replaced with new toys that hold her interest.
PV2 Carroll
C1/3 ADA
Unit #9322
APO AE 09303-3322
"Sometimes, I feel guilty," said Javier Cobian. "If I
hadn’t let him go, he wouldn’t be in this situation."
Javier is talking about his 22-year-old son Mario, a
1999 graduate of Lost River High School.
Yet Javier admits there was no real chance of
dissuading Mario from joining the Marine Corps, where he is a combat
engineer with the First Battalion of the Seventh Marine Division,
currently in battle around the town of An Nasirya in Iraq.
"He talked about his duty, his obligation to this
country," Javier said. "His grandfather was a Marine, and that figured
into his decision, I think."
In the flower-filled living room of his home on the
outskirts of Merrill, Javier sits down to talk, and invites his
16-year-old son, Daniel, to sit with him.
Tensions between Javier and Daniel have been intense in
recent weeks, Javier said.
"I think Daniel believes I love Mario more than him,
but that isn’t so," Javier said. "I am not good at showing my emotions,
and I have been worrying a lot about Mario lately. But I know how I feel
inside"
"We fight about everything," Daniel said. "But lately,
he has been talking with me more. It’s kinda weird.
"Mario is real low key, very down to earth," Daniel
said. "I’m more up and down. When Dad tells me to go find a job, I
understand that, but I don’t want to go to work at this place just because
that’s where Mario got a job. I want to find my own."
When asked what he thinks of Mario, Daniel’s tone
changes as quickly as only a 16-year-old’s can, and the pride in his older
brother resonates.
"He is doing a job he has been trained to do, and he’s
with a good bunch of guys that look out for him," Daniel said. "He’s out
there risking his life, doing what he needs to do."
Javier watches as Daniel speaks, a subtle pride of his
own shining in his eyes.
Excusing himself momentarily, Javier returns with a
packet of photographs and three well worn letters. The last, dated Feb.
28, was written Feb. 24.
In it, Mario writes of his strong desire for "tall
white socks," and foot powder.
"It’s real hard to take care of my feet out here,"
Mario says.
All three letters bear cryptic postmarks that reveal
nothing about where they were sent from, and Mario does not reveal
specifics.
"This was the last I heard from him," Javier said.
Javier said Mario is trained in demolitions, and shows
one picture of his eldest son reclining casually on a bin of high
explosives, a big grin on his face.
"He tells me he is not uncomfortable around explosives
anymore, he is not afraid," Javier said, gently shaking his head as he
looks at the picture. Suddenly somber, Javier said it was Mario’s job to
destroy obstacles and minefields before Marines could move forward.
"I worry a lot, but I think that is what parents do,"
Javier said. "We can’t do a lot, but we can support him, help him that
way.
"Like any other parent, I worry about how things are
going over there," Javier said. "No one wants to hear bad news, but I must
watch television."
Javier said some of his best memories of Mario were
when he was four years old.
"When I was working in the yard, he would follow behind
me, making the same motions I was, doing what I was doing," Javier said.
"Once, when we were sitting in the shade of a tree on a hot day, I fell
asleep. Mario laid down on top of me, and fell asleep too. I have a
picture of that too, somewhere."
Lcpl Mario V. Cobian
HQ Co. 7th Marines
(C Co. 1st CEB)
UTC 39761
FPO AE 96426-9761
It’s been said that an advantage of joining the U.S.
Navy is that your bunk travels with you.
Don’t tell that to Rudy Idrogo. The Tulelake native is
attached to the Marine Expeditionary Force as a medical corpsman, and has
been "in country" for nearly three months.
In the last two weeks, the Marine Expeditionary Force
has been involved in numerous firefights with the Feydayeen Saddam in the
small towns that lie along the Euphrates River south of Baghdad.
"He is right on the front lines," said Cuca Idrogo,
Rudy’s mother. "I worry about the unknown, but I know he’s there helping
the ones who need it."
For 22 years Cuca was a hair stylist in Tulelake, and
moved in September 2001 to Medford. "Tulelake is where I raised my
family," Cuca said. "Six boys and two girls. I miss it."
Cuca said she last heard from Rudy three weeks ago in a
phone call, and his questions brought her an insight into how little is
known to those on the point of the sword.
"He was asking me if I had heard anything about if we
were going to war," she said. "He didn’t know."
As Cuca waits for further word from Rudy she, as have
many others, has become an inveterate news watcher.
"Every day I watch," she said. "I hope to see him. I
look closely at the soldiers, I try to see his face."
Cuca said the news reports of recent anti-war protests
in cities like San Francisco and Portland make her sad.
"If it wasn’t for these young men, just like all the
veterans who have gone before them, they wouldn’t be able to protest," she
said. "They wouldn’t be free."
IdrogoRudyH.N. USN
HNS, Co. 3-4, Sect. BAS
UIC 39781
FPO AP 56426-9781