15 local Marines return safely to their families

The Marines said they shared their food and water with the Iraqi children.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
VIENNA -- Fifteen Marines home, 25 to go, said Capt. Robert Wyssbrod, commanding officer of the local 40-member Marine Corps Reserve unit deployed Feb. 17 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi War.
"Thank God everybody is safe and sound so far," Wyssbrod said Friday at a welcome-home ceremony at the Air Force Base for 15 members of his unit.
Forty members of Detachment A, Landing Support Equipment Co., 4th Landing Support Battalion, located at the air base here, were deployed to Camp Pendleton, Calif. From there, a number of the area Marines were sent to Kuwait for a few days and then found themselves in Iraq supplying troops during the fighting.
LSEC provides food, water, fuel, ammunition, spare parts, clothes, medical supplies and other materials to the front lines. It was strung-out convoy lines such as theirs that were particularly vulnerable to attack during the war.
"A lot of service support lines got hit. We dodged a bullet," Cpl. Michael Tornincasa of Youngstown, said.
Tornincasa, in Iraq for 60 days, said his unit supported the 3rd Marine Air Wing and even some Army infantry outfits who were in need of supplies.
Reunited
Tornincasa and the rest of the Marines were reunited with their families Sunday. He said his youngest son, Nicholas, 1 year old when his dad left, was particularly affected by his father's absence.
"Whenever I leave his sight, he gets worried I might be leaving again," Tornincasa said.
Sgt. Curtis Allen of Warren, who has two children, Le'Asia, 10, and Le' Allen, 6, said he felt particularly bad for the Iraqi children.
He said they would stand along the road waving and hoping for food. They would give the Marines the "thumbs up" and shout "USA."
Allen said he and other Marines often gave up their MRE (meals ready to eat) and water to the kids.
Allen, who was joined Friday by his children and wife, Barbara, said he feels good about the mission in Iraq because "we finished the war in such a quick manner and got them out of a dictatorship. Now, it's time to rebuild," he said.
A security guard at Kent State University Trumbull Campus and a 1989 graduate of LaBrae High School, Allen said he kissed the ground as soon as he got off the plane at March Air Force Base in California.
"I missed my family and I missed the USA big time," he said.
Good to be back
Cpl. Ron Blaze, of Mercer, Pa., said it was tough being so far away from home.
"It was a whole new experience getting used to the heat and the culture. The sand is the most annoying thing in the world. It gets into everything," he said.
But Blaze, son of Jeff and Debbie Blaze of Mercer, said he wouldn't give up the experience of defending his country and being a piece of history for anything.
"Sometimes, I just wish the country loved me as much as I love it," he said, referring to homeland protests against the war.
Blaze, a 2000 graduate of Mercer High School, is a junior at Slippery Rock University, where he said he will resume his study of ecology as soon as possible.
U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, of Lisbon, D-6th, and Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, congratulated the Marines on doing a great job, and promised their support to make sure the troops have the best equipment, training and facilities available.
"We are grateful for the sacrifices of you and your families. If and when we rebuild Iraq, it will be you who started it," Ryan said.
"As we watched the war on television, it brought it home to us, but it was still antiseptic. We didn't experience the heat or the danger or the deprivation. It was you and others like you who bore the burden. Thank you," Strickland said.
alcorn@vindy.com