| War isn't over until the troops come home, parents say
By Pat Healy While the Pentagon has said this week that large-scale combat in Iraq is finished, area residents with children in the military overseas are wondering how long it will be until their loved ones return home. West Roxbury’s Theresa McIrney, whose 20 year-old son Paul is fighting in the Marines, said she isn’t getting her hopes up. “I don’t think it’s wrapping up yet,” she said. “I won’t believe it until my son is home in my arms.” McIrney has organized a support group for parents of soldiers, which meets on Wednesdays at the West Roxbury Pub on Centre Street. She said a lot of parents have expressed concern for how the war will have changed their children. “He’s an awfully young kid to have to be in a war and to deal with it,” she said of her son. “I’m just thinking of the flashbacks, and how much of a hard time he might have dealing with it if he sees a friend die or something.” She is also worried about the reaction of the nation. “Hopefully they don’t treat them like they did after Vietnam and spit on them, because they’re just doing their job,” she said of the public. Dave Foley, also of West Roxbury, has a 19-year old son Kevin, who is en route to Iraq now from Germany as part of the Army’s peacekeeping mission. He said he thinks the war is definitely coming to a close, but that his son will be there for at least another year. “It seems to me that it’s waning now, but with all the possible guerilla warfare and terrorism there’s no telling how long it will be,” he said. “And he told me that he and his unit are trained to anticipate a lot of sporadic combat.” Foley talks to his son quite frequently, he said. He renews his son’s calling card on the condition that he calls his dad when he gets the chance. “I pay for the card, but he’s got to make sure I’m on the list of phone calls he makes,” he said. Some parents aren’t as informed. West Roxbury’s Joanne O’Hara has only received one letter from her 28-year old daughter Stacy Clement (formerly Stacy Martell). But she watches the news every chance she can get, and she thinks she saw her daughter on TV about six weeks ago. The Commander of a Patriot Missile Battery in the Army, Stacy is in the same base as the recently rescued POWs, including Jessica Lynch. O’Hara said she finds this sort of information comforting rather than worrisome. “Watching the news helps me deal with it,” she said. McIrney said she watches the news less than when the war began because it’s too stressful for her. “I used to watch it 24 hours a day, but now I just watch it at suppertime,” she said. McIrney received an e-mail from her son earlier this month, but it is the letter her son wrote to her on a piece of cardboard that she keeps with her at all times. The letter conveys the simple message that he is okay. And she keeps it with her in the hopes that the message will continue to be true. “It’s a keepsake I carry with me,” she said. “I don’t get him or the war out of my mind ever.” Fran Maher and Sharon McDonough also watch the news to see what their 21-year old son Ryan might be going through over there. A Marine, they receive e-mails from him every few weeks. “He said everything was okay,” said Fran. “The actual war part is almost over, but there’s going to be skirmishes and these little pockets of resistance.” Fred and Mary Davis, whose 29-year old son Robert is stationed in Iraq with the Army’s 883rd Medical Company, try not to watch too much of the news because of the stress it causes. “We change it and then go back to it,” she said. “It’s hard. Things seem to be getting a little better though. We just want to see them come home safely.” |
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