A day of hellos and goodbyes
TWENTYNINE PALMS - There were tears and laughter Saturday at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center. There were hugs, smiles and cheers, and there were kisses filled with sorrow.
There was Mariza Cortez, 23, standing on the sidewalk, embracing and then waving goodbye to her husband who was leaving for Iraq.
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_5104550
Charlotte Hsu, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:01/28/2007 12:00:00 AM PST
There was Candice Trevi o, 20, who ran to meet her husband, who was coming back from Iraq.
There was Ray Flores, 59, a Vietnam veteran who rode with more than 100 other bikers to the base to welcome the returning troops.
Cortez, Trevi o and Flores were among hundreds who turned out at the base Saturday for a rare same-day homecoming and deployment, with about 300 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment returning and departing, said Marines spokesman Chris Cox.
About 600 more Marines are expected to depart today and Monday, Cox added.
The departing soldiers waved to friends and families from behind tinted windows as their buses turned out of a base parking lot - the first leg of a long journey to Iraq.
Some of the Marines shouted, their words silenced by the glass, while others held their cameras up for last photographs.
Cortez said she didn't cry as much as she thought she would.
Even as she held her husband before he boarded the bus.
Even as she sent him off with a soft kiss, the type that lingers on the lips long after it's over.
She met Frank Cortez, 23, in high school in Dallas. But it wasn't until early last year, after he'd already been to and returned from Iraq, that they began to date. They fell in love and were married in the summer.
"It was just one of those things that happened so fast," Cortez remembered, smiling.
"He was just very kind-hearted to everyone," she said. "Him and his mom were best friends, and I just thought that was a good quality for a guy to have."
Because Cortez was working as a third-grade teacher in Texas while her husband was based in Twentynine Palms, the two had a long-distance marriage. They would see each other at least once a month.
When he returns, she said, they will take tango lessons because they both love to dance.
When Trevi o spotted her husband, Marcus Trevi o, 20, she ran to him, carrying balloons and a year's worth of love.
They met online about two years ago, she said, and fell in love quickly. They had a child, Marcus Trevi o Jr., shortly before the Marine from Bakersfield left for the war.
"Feels good," Marcus Trevi o said simply of his homecoming.
His mother and father, Rosie and Ricky Mendez, were also there to greet him. Rosie Mendez squeezed him hard and cried.
"It was real hard when he left," she said. "We had never been through that before, having to go through every day not knowing if he's going to come back."
When Flores returned from Vietnam in 1967, there was no band to greet him, no smiles, no hugs.
When he stepped off the plane in Oakland and kissed the ground, thankful to be away from the jungles of Asia, the only cheers he heard were from protestors chanting anti-war slogans.
"There was nothing," Flores said. "We came here, and that was it. They told us to change our military clothes to civilian clothes and go home."
Flores, of Colton, and Candelario Rodriguez, who also served in Vietnam, accompanied Marcus Trevi o's bus Saturday from March Air Reserve Base near Riverside to Twentynine Palms.
The two are members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of mostly veterans who participate in welcome-home rides like Saturday's. They also attend funerals for fallen veterans.
Rodriguez, 54, of Upland, said though he disapproves of many decisions American politicians have made, the soldiers who fight for the country should be honored.
He rides to welcome the troops home because, he said, "They deserve it."
At the end of the ride, Rodriguez watched as families cried, embracing their young Marines.
As he wandered through the crowd, he paused to watch as Marcus Trevino poked his 13-month-old son in the bellybutton.