|
||||
|
Posted on 04/21/2003 7:40:53 PM PDT by AgThorn
|
Sun Apr 20, 1:36 PM ET
|
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO - Audrey Trevino has played it over in her mind a thousand times: Her Navy husband steps off the ship after months at sea supporting the war in Iraq (news - web sites), grabs her in his arms and kisses her.
|
||||||||||||||||
"I'm going to be there waiting when the ship comes home, whenever that is," said Trevino, 27, of San Antonio, Texas.
Now that the battle for Iraq is over, the lingering question for her and other military family members is when will the troops come home?
For some, it's a matter of weeks.
In San Diego and Everett, Wash., the anticipation is growing after word came that the USS Abraham Lincoln, a floating airfield for the Navy's most modern fighter jets, is on its way home.
The Lincoln and its seven-ship battle group have been at sea nearly nine months, longer than any U.S. carrier group now on duty. It will offload its airwing and leave some of support ships in San Diego before returning to its home port in Everett.
For others, especially families of Marines or Army soldiers, the wait will be much longer. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it likely will be several months before most of the ground troops leave Iraq.
Antonia Aurilio, 28, of Bridgeport, Conn., said she has known from the day her husband, Gunnery Sgt. James Aurilio, was deployed that it would be months before he returned with the 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division to Twentynine Palms, Calif.
She just hopes he's back by August, in time for the birth of their second child.
"The rumors are starting, and you just hope they are true," she said.
Ten-year-old Jake Rabidou of Camp Lejeune, N.C., also doesn't know how long he's going to have to wait to see his father, a Marine gunnery sergeant deployed since January. He wants his father home soon, Jake says, "because I miss him."
Kathy Delay of Everett, Wash., is happy her husband, hospital Corpsman Mark Delay, is headed home aboard the Lincoln, but her thoughts also are with those whose spouses remain in the Middle East.
"Our husbands are on the way home. There are men on the front lines who are going to be there for months," she said. "So it's hard to be so excited."
Some cities already have had homecoming celebrations. In Norfolk, Va., and Groton, Conn., transport ships and submarines returned to thousands of flag-waving family members.
Members of the 507th Maintenance Support Company based at Fort Bliss, Texas, remain overseas, although five former POWs from the company returned to the base Saturday. Two Apache helicopter crewmen who were among the rescued POWs also returned Saturday to their base, Fort Hood, Texas.
"We will have several welcome celebrations, not only for (the 507th) but for all our soldiers," Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offut said.
The wife of former POW Army Spc. Joseph Hudson already has plans for when her husband returns.
"He just wants dinner cooked for him. He's told me that he wants green chile chicken enchiladas," said Natalie Hudson, of El Paso, Texas.
Everett plans a welcome home party for the USS Lincoln, with a cheering crowd waving 20,000 yellow pompoms. Club Broadway has even begun collecting donations from local customers so it can throw its own party for the crew.
For Trevino, the return of her husband's transport ship, the San Diego-based USS Dubuque, can't come soon enough. That ship is not part of the Lincoln's group.
She and her husband, Signalman Victor Trevino, have been married a little more than two years, half of which her husband has spent at sea.
"I'll just keep thinking about it," she said. "It kind of makes the wait worth it."
She's looking forward to him sharing the journal he has kept throughout the war.
"I know this is going to be a really big thing that happened to him, and he's going to want to talk about," she said. "He doesn't want to forget any of it, and I don't want him to."
Though families look forward to the homecomings, nearly all say the hardest part will come with the end of celebrations.
"I've never had a husband come home from war before," Aurilio said. "I understand it's going to take time to get back to normal. I know they have seen stuff I can't comprehend."
___
Associated Press reporters William L. Holmes in Raleigh, N.C., Chris Roberts in El Paso, Texas, and Scott Thomsen in Seattle contributed to this report.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
