Marine Corps News Room

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051130/NEWS01/511300314/1002

By VICKY TAYLOR
Staff writer

FRANKLIN COUNTY — Marines serving in Iraq might have been fed well on Thanksgiving, but holidays in a war zone are just another day closer to going home, according to Pfc. Ashley Graybill, an ammo specialist from Franklin County stationed in Iraq.

Her unit at Camp TQ celebrated Thanksgiving in a decorated mess hall, dining on lobster, steak, seafood and turkey.

"All the good stuff," she said.
Still it was not the same as home, and she and her fellow Marines marked the day off the calendar as one day closer to returning.

Life on the front lines in a war zone isn't the best place to spend the holidays, but Graybill said she and fellow Marines are making the best of their situation and plan a Christmas celebration among themselves.

Mail from home, including from strangers who want to wish a lonely Marine a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, is especially welcome.

Graybill recently e-mailed Public Opinion with a request to be put on the Operation Cheer list, hoping for some extra mail over the holidays. Other requests for the list have come from family members of service members, but Graybill's was the first from Iraq this year. (She provided the information for this story by e-mail as well.)

She and her comrades in arms don't sit around moping about their situation, but make the best of what they have, she said.

For Christmas, her unit has drawn names for a secret Santa gift exchange and decorated their office with some of the holiday decorations they have been getting in the mail. Those things are morale-builders, she said, marking not only the holiday season, but serving as a reminder that each day is one day closer to going home.

Meanwhile, they continue to do their jobs in a less-than-ideal situation. In Graybill's case, that job is supplying ammunition to military units in Iraq.

The deployment to Iraq in September was Graybill's second tour of duty in the Middle East. She had spent three months in Kuwait last year.

Camp TQ is located in the middle of the desert and temperatures often reach 130 degrees in the daytime, dropping to 60 to 70 at night, Graybill said. Although her unit does have air conditioners, at times they don't work.

"The chow hall food is not the best, but it's as close to home cooking as we get out here," she said.

The Marines at Camp TQ live in 12-man tents, or in barracks, or for a lucky few, in "hooches." Hooches are made of plywood and house eight to 12 people.

The camp has movie and game tents, but Graybill said "those get old after a while."

Her unit plays cards, basketball, softball "and things like that" when

not working to pass the time and stay busy.

She said there are people of many nationalities — from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and other countries — in her corner of Iraq.

"They are trying to help us get everything under control to make this place better," she said.

Those people risk their lives and the lives of their families in doing that, she said.

For Graybill, joining the Marines has been a way to escape from a "not so great" life and make a better life for herself.

She is a 2001 graduate of Fannett-Metal High School. After high school, she did odd jobs, then joined the Marine Corps to get away from drugs and peer pressure.

"My life wasn't that great and I wanted to make something of it," she said.

She went to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., in December 2002, then to North Carolina to train. She was then sent to Redstone in Alabama, where she was trained as an ammunition technician.

After finishing that military occupation specialty training, she went into the fleet at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and two months later was deployed to Kuwait, where she spent three months working with ammo that was supplied to the front lines.

She was home for a while, then in September sent to Iraq.

"We have been hit by rockets, mortars and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) every day but we are still going strong," she said.

Originally published November 30, 2005