Welcome home 2/8

Braving chilly weather, a crowd of nearly 400 gathered aboard Camp Lejeune Tuesday to welcome home a company from what has been dubbed “America’s Battalion.”

About 150 Marines in the Echo company of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, returned to Camp Lejeune from Afghanistan’s Helmand Province around 6:30 p.m., completing what had been an unexpectedly risky deployment.

The battalion suffered 13 casualties in the seven months it spent in Afghanistan. But the Marines who returned said the loss of their brothers had made them determined to fight harder and to survive.

For some, the homecoming was a chance to meet sons and daughters for the first time. Sarah Auge, who held 4-month-old Kayo securely swaddled in blankets against the cold, said she looked forward to having her husband, Lance Cpl. Charles Auge, meet the baby for the first time.

“We’re going to get to be a family,” she said.

When the three buses unloaded, and the Auges reunited, both parents were teary-eyed and without words.
“It doesn’t feel real yet,” Lance Cpl. Auge said.

Many of those waiting to welcome their troops wore indigo sweatshirts with the inscription “Front Toward Hero” and information about the battalion. Two Marine parents, Rod and Heather Vance, who came from California to welcome their son, Cpl. Joshua Vance, created and distributed the shirts as a part of what they called “Operation Homecoming.”

The inscription, a play on the phrase “Front Toward Enemy” that appears on some land mines, was created “so that when they got off the bus, they would see the shirts and know they were heroes,” Heather Vance said. She also coordinated an effort to create more than 600 welcome baskets filled with essentials to help the Marines make the transition back to life in the barracks.

Aside from the high level of combat that 2/8 experienced, the deployment was also marked by an unusual level of media coverage, with embedded reporters from National Public Radio and CBS’s Lara Logan, among others. The battalion’s Family Readiness Officer Misty Weiser said the media reports were a mixed blessing for many.

“(The broadcast footage) has been graphic at times,” Weiser said, “but just to see a Marine or sailor on TV and be able to catch a glimpse of them, that’s everything to families.”

Weiser also said the deployment was challenging because communication was not as frequent between troops and their loved ones, compared to the battalion’s previous deployment to Iraq.

But the executive officer for 2/8 Maj. Tom Garnett said, despite challenges, the battalion had accomplished much in Afghanistan.

“The company went into position starting off with what they had on their backs,” Garnett said. “They went into areas where no one had been and stayed.”

The battalion’s success in fulfilling their mission of providing security for the Afghan people and forces, Garnett said, was owed largely to a new approach of entering towns and asking leaders what they most needed, rather than attempting to provide what the U.S. military thought they needed. Clean drinking water was among the local needs the Marines worked to meet.

Those arriving Tuesday were ready to see their loved ones.

Peg and Edward Larkin of Stafford, Va., came to welcome their son, 1st Lt. Joseph Larkin, joining his fiancée, Shannon Jones.

1st Lt. Larkin is part of a three-generation Marine family. His father is a retired major who served with other battalions in the 8th Marines.

However, Peg said the stress of deployment does not get any easier.

“When (Lt. Larkin) left for Iraq the first time, it had to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.

As the family reunited, Peg was all smiles and tears. “He looks great, he looks fantastic,” she said.

And Lcpl. Leo Robinson met his five-month-old twins, Abigial and Leo Jr., for the first time.

“There’s no words to describe how I feel right now holding them,” Robinson said, who’d only been able to see them on Webcam while deployed.

Of the deployment, Robinson said he and the other Marines held their fallen brothers in their hearts and vowed to stay alive for them.

“That was probably the hardest thing about being over there is saying, ‘We’ve got to stay alive,’” he said.

Contact military reporter Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or at hhodge@freedomenc.com.