On to Iraq; Richmond mother shares pride, anxiety about 19-year-old son's deployment
RICHMOND — For Karen Seigars, the mo-ment would have been ironic if it wasn't so scary.
On Tuesday, the day that the Mid-coast region buried one 19-year-old soldier who died fighting overseas — Army Pfc. Andrew Small of Wiscasset — another 19-year-old soldier — Seigars' son, Mat — arrived in Iraq to start a tour of duty.
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08/24/2006
Andrew Small and Mat Seigars both graduated from high school in 2005, Small from Wiscasset High School and Seigars from Richmond High School. They come from small close-knit communities, where families look out for each other and whole towns take pride in the accomplishments of their young people.
Karen Seigars is proud of her son, just as she was when he enlisted in the Marine Corps while he was still a student at Richmond High School. But, as was the case when Mat told his mother of his plans to serve in the military, that pride is mixed with anxiety — fear that her son's call to duty will place him in harm's way.
He's now in a place where she can't look out for him.
Mat Seigars was back in Richmond a little more than a week ago, one last trip home before his unit shipped out to Iraq. Karen Seigars said goodbye to her son at 4:30 a.m. Aug. 16, on the day he re-turned to his Marine Corps base in North Carolina.
Karen couldn't sleep after Mat departed for his flight out of Portland. She has had moments during the past week when she has been fine, then burst into tears.
A day before Mat's departure, she almost got into her first bar fight. A man at the Old Goat pub on Main Street started to tell her about how his nephew had died in Iraq after getting shot in the head.
Karen said she didn't want to hear it.
The man kept talking.
Karen wanted to hit him to make him shut up, but, instead, she clenched her fist and walked away.
Mat, a private, is serving at the Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq. He was one of more than 250 Marines who left for Iraq on Sunday as part of Marine Light/Attack Helicopter Squadron 167, according to the Web site for Marine Corps Air Station New River, www.newriver.usmc.mil/. He and his fellow Marines will support ground operations with their UH-1N "Hueys" and AH-1W "Super Cobras."
Because he will be working on the helicopters, Mat's assignment will keep him on the air base, not on patrol with other Marines in Iraq.
"But it still tears me up," Karen said.
She got a call from Mat in Iraq on Wednesday night. He told her the heat he had heard about was no exaggeration and that he was tired of carrying his gun around with him.
During the 270-day assignment, he plans to take a number of self-taught classes, including "Math For Marines" and terrorism awareness.
"He's really motivated," Karen said. "He wants to be a door gunner. And I wanted to punch him in the head when he told me."
Mat's stint in Iraq will consist of 12-hour shifts doing helicopter maintenance and repair, along with his studies. As one of the newer members of the crew, he often hands tools to fellow Marines. If no mechanical work is being done, he sweeps.
"You never stand around. Always busy," he said. "I've never seen cement get so clean."
Mat told his mother about his deployment a couple months ago. He stayed in Richmond for a week during his leave, grew a goatee and shaved it off before leaving for his base in New River, N.C. From there, he left for Iraq.
Mat is scheduled to return home on leave in the early spring of next year.
Karen gave him a haircut on the Monday before he left. She is a barber at Brunswick Naval Air Station and said many people on the base have asked her about her son and his upcoming assignment. She and Mat went shopping at the Navy Exchange the same day, and she bought him everything from toothpaste, shampoo to Tylenol for his new assignment.
Packing is simple. Before he left, Mat said he would not be taking any civilian clothes with him. He planned to pack a portable DVD player, but no DVDs because he will either buy them or borrow ones from fellow Marines.
Another item he said he would pack is a jack of spades he received when he signed up for the Marines last year. The playing card has "Hue, Vietnam, February 1968" written on it. The man who carried the card made it back to the United States alive while serving in the armed services during the Vietnam War.
Mat did not know Staff Sgt. Dale James Kelly Jr., the 48-year-old Army National Guard medic who died in May when a roadside bomb went off near his armored truck while he was on convoy duty in Iraq.
He does know Anthony Marson, who is serving in the Army National Guard on convoy duty in Iraq. They went to Richmond High School together and were friends. Another Richmond graduate, Chris Buchanan, is serving in the Army in Iraq as well.
A fellow Marine and member of the Richmond High School class of 2005, Andrew Blake, may serve on the same base as Mat, later this year, Karen said. Blake helps repair jets.
Mat and Blake were among seven members of the 37-person Richmond High School class of 2005 to join the armed services as active duty members or in the reserves.