Erica Hall and her husband, Cpl. David Hall, look at their three-week-old daughter, Riley. Hall returned Mondaymorning from deployment to Iraq with Task Force East. This is the first time he has seen his daughter.
It was 2:40 Monday morning but no one was yawning. There was too muchexcitement as the Quantico Marine Band struck up ‘‘The Stars and Stripes Forever” and the 157 Marines of Task Force East marched smartly into Barber Fitness Center, returning from a four-and-a-half month deployment to Iraq.
Ruth Sandino couldn’t sit still. She was road-weary from driving 26 hours from San Antonio, but worked up about seeing her youngest child, Cpl. Bayardo Andino.
‘‘He’s my baby,” said Sandino, the mother of three. ‘‘I raised him bymyself. Even though he has two older sisters, he’s the man of the family.”
She’s no stranger to having a family member deployed. Her two daughters are each veterans of deployments with the Navy.
As communications manager for the USO of Metropolitan Washington, Crystal Benton has seen deployment from a professional, somewhat distant perspective. Today, however, she has a front-row seat. She and Cpl. Jacob Burnett have been dating for just about a year and she was anxious for his return.
‘‘There are some nerves,” she said as she fidgeted with a sign that read ‘‘Welcome home, Sugar.”
‘‘I’m impressed with families whoendure and sacrifice,” she said. ‘‘They, too, really serve our country.”
Erica Hall had more reasons to be nervous. Her husband, Cpl. David Hall, would soon meet his three-week-old daughter, Riley.
‘‘He’s gotten to hear her but he hasn’t seen her yet,” she said.
Later, sitting in the bleachers, Dad cuddled with Mom and daughter and, despite the hubbub in the gym, shared their first quiet moments asa family.
Dad inspected his baby girl’s fingers.
They were perfect.
Task Force East deployed in mid-June and, according to Commanding Officer Maj. Rugsithi Meelarp, ‘‘the Marines had a very interesting deployment.
‘‘We had several missions during the deployment,” said Meelarp, a New York City native, ‘‘security force mission,military movement mission, border transition team and internal security for Al Asad Air Base, where the Marines got to interact with Iraqi police to professionalize the police force.”
But very early on a chilly October Monday morning, the mission for every Task Force East Marine was single-minded: Home.
Cpl. Freddy Allen, of Moorestown, N,J., who has been married for less than a year, was looking forward to ‘‘seeing my wife and friends,” but the first thing he wanted to do is ‘‘take a shower. Ireally need a shower.”
The only showers at the homecoming, though, were tears of joy and relief. Nearly 200 loved ones waited patiently for their Marines. There were even Marines waiting for Marines.
Cpl. Renatta Fenton, a Marine stationed here at Quantico, waited for her fiancÈ, Cpl. Lloyd Hall, a Marine from Headquarters Marine Corps at Henderson Hall. They are scheduled to bemarried on Nov. 6.
At 3 a.m. tables groaned under the weight food set up by Marine Corps Community Services while families hugged one another. A few noticed the band begin to play the ‘‘Marines’ Hymn” and snapped to attention. Otherswere too caught up in the excitement of being reunited and simply held each other closely.
Editor’s note: Sgt. Judith Willis contributed to this story.
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