Marine Corps News Room

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
BY WAYNE WOOLLEY
Star-Ledger Staff

But the Marine reservist hesitated, his tan combat boots planted on the Picatinny Arsenal asphalt and his eyes fixed on his wife, Ann, and his daughters, Katelynn, 10, Carlina, 7, and Elizabeth, 3.

"There is nothing tougher than being away from these faces," said Anderson, 31, of Brick before beginning one last round of hugs and heading off to his second tour in Iraq.

"He's going to miss so much when he's gone," Ann Anderson said as she clutched Elizabeth to her chest and watched her husband, a contractor in civilian life, walk toward the bus.

It was a scene that played out many times yesterday morning as nearly 150 Marines of Golf Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 25th Marines left their home armory for three months of training in California and then the infantry unit's second combat tour in Iraq in five years.

All of the unit's officers and senior enlisted men (women are barred from serving in infantry units) have been to Iraq at least once before, as have about one-third of the more-junior Marines, said Maj. John Fitzsimmons, the unit's commander.

"The combat experience helps," said Fitzsimmons, who led a scout-sniper platoon during a tour in Iraq in 2003.

The Marines flew from Newark to California on a charter flight. They will train for three months at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, then deploy to Iraq in late September for a seven-month tour.

The Marines, who specialize in ground combat, will be assigned somewhere in Anbar province, a sprawling region west of Baghdad that includes the towns of Ramadi and Fallujah. Fitzsimmons, whose civilian job is as a commercial real estate manager in Manhattan, said his unit's specific mission won't be decided until later in the summer.

In California, the Marines will take part in an ongoing training exercise dubbed Mohave Viper to prepare all Iraq-bound active-duty and reserve units. The first training begins today with classroom work, including a crash course on Iraqi culture, language and customs.

As the Marines awaited the order yesterday to board the buses, they stood in tight clusters with family members who used camera phones for last-minute snapshots.

Lance Cpl. Rickey Ferriola Jr., 21, a Rutgers student making his first deployment, said he had been too busy to dwell on the dangers he will face overseas.

His mother, Janice Ferriola, and father, Rickey Ferriola Sr., managed to find time to worry.

"It's going to be tough," Janice Ferriola said. "But we're going to keep him in our prayers, and our whole family is going to be keeping him in our prayers."

Her husband jumped in: "And it's a whole big family, thankfully. So there will be a lot of prayers."

As the Marines and families milled about, Anna Berlinrut made her way through the crowd, quietly handing out fliers inviting families to join Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war organization for military families. Her son, a sergeant, was leaving for his second tour in Iraq.

Berlinrut, a member of the group's Essex County chapter, said she handed out maybe 50 fliers.

"A lot of them are going to go in the trash," she said. "But I've found people who say they'll come to one of our meetings."

Many of the families said their feelings about the war were a private matter.

Their feelings about their sons, husbands and boyfriends were not.

Before the buses boarded, Don D'Amico of Parsippany choked up as he talked about his 24-year-old son, Cpl. Andrew D'Amico, who will be making his second trip to Iraq.

"I'm real proud of him," the father said. "Since he was little, this is what he wanted to do. Now I just want him to come home safe."