That mixture of pride, anticipation and quiet anxiety could be felt all around Fort Drum, a 109,000-acre military reservation in far upstate New York. And the mood was much the same around Camp Pendleton, the sprawling Marine base along the Pacific coast north of San Diego. Pendleton is home for the First MEF, which will provide the bulk of the 16,000-person contingent of leathernecks that will soon embark for Somalia. Shortly thereafter, up to 10,000 10th Division troopers will leave Fort Drum. At the weekend, however, none of the troops or their families knew exactly when the peacekeepers were shipping out-or more important, when they were coming back. At Salmon Run Mall, a shopping center not far from Fort Drum, 17-year-old Teme Shia voiced some of the frustrations of those who are staying behind. “Our parents went to Desert Storm, and it’s the second Christmas that they’re not going to be here,” Teme said. Her main concern, she said, is that her father wont be home in time for her high-school graduation next June.
There were larger fears as well. Somalia, some worried, could turn out to be the next Vietnam, or a replay of the 1983 U.S. peacekeeping mission in Beirut that led to the deaths of 241 U.S. marines. “I’ve got something in my gut telling me I’m not coming back,” confessed one “very nervous” 20-year-old marine at Camp Pendleton. Even experienced hands like Cpl. Joel Harkins, a gulf war veteran, said they expected at least some fireworks before peace is restored in Somalia. “I’m not saying we’ve bitten off more than we can chew, but I expect there’s going to be some fighting over there,” Harkins said. “Once we get in there to get food to the people, how are we going to pull out? I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as George Bush made it seem.” Others wondered whether Washington had some hidden strategic motive for intervening in Somalia-and Rosemary Hamilton, who runs Jughead’s, a popular Marine Corps hangout near Camp Pendleton, said, “I don’t think it’s our job to police the world, especially when we didn’t do so well in L.A.”
For most, however, the steady stream of ghastly news photos from Somalia in recent months was reason enough to support George Bush’s decision. “Of all his deployments, this is the one that I could tolerate the most,” said Theresa White Bear, whose husband, James, a Marine gunnery sergeant, just returned from Mogadishu for stateside leave and could go back again. “I look at my kids, and I look at those [Somali] women,” she said. “They don’t have what I have-I have food for my children.” White Bear, an aircraft-maintenance specialist who was sent to Somalia to assist U.N. forces there, said, “This is one of the world’s atrocities. The world can’t stand by and say it’s OK” to let it happen.
White Bear is luckier than most-he expects to be with his family on Christmas. For thousands of other Marine and army men and women, however, the Somalia mission means wrenching departures just before the holidays and separations that could last for months to come. At a fast-food restaurant on the Fort Drum reservation Friday, Staff Sgt. James Carter listened to Pentagon briefings on the deployment as his wife, Shari, burst into tears. Four months pregnant and despondent that they will spend Christmas apart, she plans to move in with her family in Cincinnati while her husband is in Africa. The hardest part, she said, was telling her 3-year-old son, Peter, that his daddy was going away. “I’ll tell him he’ll be back, but I don’t know when,” she said.
At the base gymnasium, hundreds of GIs lined up for shots, blood tests, dental work and paperwork needed to put their affairs in order. Many revised their wills and bought insurance policies for their families. In nearby Watertown, city clerk Donna Dutton said applications for marriage licenses had doubled, and jewelry-store owners reported a sudden run on wedding and engagement rings. Married couples like Anthony and Cheryl Quintall had to put their holiday plans on hold. Quintall, director of the Fort Drum radio and television station, said he “understood” that his wife, a supply sergeant with the 10th Division, had to follow her profession-but he was concerned about the risks to women soldiers in Third World countries. “These are things we know can happen to us as women, and things we have to be prepared for,” his wife said. “It’s every female soldier’s concern.”
And then there were Sgt. Joe Colson and his wife, Sgt. Bertha Colson. Both Colsons are shipping out with the 10th Division-which means their children, JoJo, 7, and Melissa, 3, will have to spend the holidays with friends or relatives while Mom and Dad go off to do their duty. Last week, as he and his wife packed their gear and prepared the kids for the coming separation, Joe Colson said the dual deployment was “kind of disappointing,” though he accepted that “it’s our job.” But as African-Americans, he and his wife felt a special urgency about Somalia. “There were a lot of dead bodies in Iraq, and a terrible stench,” he said, adding that Somalia “will be worse.” He has seen the television footage of emaciated babies and starving women, and he has been moved by the realization that “this could be my family.” Those seeking the raison d’etre for America’s intervention in Somalia can find it here.
Will sending U.S. forces to Somalia make it more likely that U.S. forces will be sent to restore peace or ensure humanitarian relief in other parts of the world? 69% Yes 26% No Will sending U.S. forces to Somalia make it more likely that U.S. forces will be sent to Bosnia? 65% Yes 23% No NEWSWEEK Poll, Dec. 3-4, 1992
