TWENTYNINE PALMS (California): Just a week ago, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Martinez had called his mother from Iraq with exciting news. “He said, ‘Mom, go to Zale’s and buy a carat-and-a-half diamond — I’m coming home,’ “ Kelly Hunt said. Martinez, 20, planned to propose to his long-time girlfriend as soon as he got home to Splendora, Texas, maybe as early as January.
Now Hunt is planning a funeral, not a wedding. Martinez and nine others from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment were killed on Thursday outside Fallujah by the blast of a bomb cobbled together from artillery shells. It was the largest one-day loss of the Iraq war for Marine units from Twentynine Palms and the largest overall among American troops in almost four months.
The battalion has been in Iraq since July, its third deployment to the war zone. The bombing, which occurred while the men were on foot patrol, pushed the death toll from the sprawling Twentynine Palms base in the Mojave Desert to 75.
“These men did not give their lives in vain,” Col. William Crowe, commanding officer of the 7th Marine Regiment, said of the 10 on Saturday. “We will not forget them.” Initial news reports said the Marines were part of the 2nd Marine Division from Camp Lejeune, N.C. Actually, the Marines from Twentynine Palms were augmenting the forces from Camp Lejeune. The battalion lost three of its members earlier in the war, and families’ nerves had been frayed. But a recent newsletter from the command had suggested the worst was over.
“Things are going very well,” the newsletter said. “While we have had casualties, our spirits are high and we continue every day to look for ways to win.” Some families had dared to plan for a celebratory return. Shirley Watson, of Union City, Mich., was going to greet her son, Lance Cpl. Craig Watson, 21, as soon as he stepped off the bus in Twentynine Palms.
“He told me I’d better have a beer in my hand for him,” she said. “He was so ready to come home; he was so close.” In Romeoville, Ill., the family of Lance Cpl. Adam Kaiser, 19, had planned to keep the Christmas decorations up until he came home, they hoped in mid-January. Then came the midnight visit from the casualty team. “Soon as you see their faces, you can tell what happened,” said Kaiser’s father, Wade, of the sombre visitors. “The worst part is later: You sit there in disbelief. You can’t sleep, you can’t eat, you keep thinking maybe it’s a mistake. “It’s about as horrible as you can imagine.”
Timothy Holmason of Scappose, Ore., lost his son, Lance Cpl. John Holmason, 20. “It was about 1 a.m., and I heard the knock,” he said. “I looked out from the second-floor, and I knew immediately when I saw the Marines there.” Some parents on Saturday were pondering their son’s fateful decision to enlist in the branch of military most likely to send them into a combat zone.
“When he talked about the military, I suggested the Air Force, but he was Marine Corps all the way,” said Holmason said. But many families and friends expressed grief mixed with a formidable sense of pride. The family of Lance Cpl. Anthony McElveen, 20, of Little Falls, Minn., declined to talk to reporters but issued a statement noting that their son enlisted after the Sept. 11 attacks and was “proud to be defending our freedom.” “Scott loved the Iraqi kids,” said John Modeen, of Inver Grove Height, Minn., father of Lance Cpl. Scott T. Modeen, 24, who was among those killed. “He told me that ‘Dad, they’re just regular people like us.’ “ On the base, which exists to teach desert-fighting techniques, Marine families huddled together to offer emotional support and share titbits of information about the deadly attack.—Dawn/Los Angeles Times News Service
