Newport Firms Give Party, Support to Marine Families

Some were proud. Others weary or bitter. But nearly all 750 wives and children of Marines deployed to the Persian Gulf appeared grateful Sunday for a day of relaxation and entertainment offered by a Newport Beach hotel and local businesses.

The wives, mostly of enlisted men, dined from an elegant buffet and listened to a celebrity dance band in a ballroom filled with yellow ribbons, carnations and balloons. In another, their children danced with Hula Hoops, talked to Santa Claus and Batman and sent Christmas cards and valentines to their fathers thousands of miles away.

“This is great,” Madeline Harville, 32, told Col. Paul Johnston, commanding officer of the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station who, at the request of the Newport Marriott management, had invited the spouses of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing stationed in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and elsewhere in the gulf. Half the unit is now deployed in the gulf and more are preparing to leave, he said.

“This is the first support the wives in our squadron have had since (the deployment) in August,” said Harville, whose husband Top is a master sergeant deployed in Bahrain.

Harville said she sent a letter two weeks ago to the Pentagon asking for more support for spouses but as yet has received no answer. “Wives need a whole lot more” moral support and information, she said. “We need to know we’re going to be OK, what’s going on. . . .”

The children ate hot dogs and mingled with volunteers dressed as a Ninja Turtle, Batman, Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. Some played mock war with long balloons as swords while others made valentines of lace and pipe cleaners.

“I Love you Daddy. Love Rachel,” said one decorated with wooden hearts.

The free party arrived on the heels of disappointing news for those like Judi Burch of Irvine who had expected her husband Dave to return home in a troop rotation in February. But U.S. leaders announced last week that the still growing number of troops will not return until the crisis is resolved.

“I understand they’re doing a good job. I wish they’d come home. They’re needed here, too,” she said. Her only child, Christopher, 9, has had occasional stress-related breathing problems since his father, an air traffic controller, left Aug. 18. A pediatrician told her that he will recover when he accepts the situation, she said.

Christopher said his father used to take him snorkeling every night in the community pool. He misses his father but sends him his school work and talks to him on the phone. “I’m proud of him,” he said as a peace sign was painted on his face.

Former Green Beret Gerry Rush, now corporate travel director for the hotel, conceived the party and enlisted the volunteer services of 200 hotel employees and several local businesses to make it happen. Rush, whose license plate carries a Vietnam ribbon and the motto “It was always right,” said he felt that it was his job “as an American” to help the families.

He also wanted to help those who have been hurt financially by their husband’s deployment, so portions of the event included signing up for classes on job interviewing skills and door prizes.

A Marine sergeant earns between $15,000 and $16,000 a year, and many moonlighted as clerks or security guards to make ends meet, Johnston said. “Some (wives) lost up to $1,500 a month. Easy,” Rush said.

About half the families arrived on buses from the air stations at El Toro and Tustin. The hotel also paid about $800 to keep day-care centers at the bases open Sunday so that women with small children could attend the brunch.

Sunday, the hotel also hoisted a 20-by-16-foot yellow ribbon on its facade, a symbol that the troops are not forgotten. It will remain up until the end of the crisis, a workman said.

“Orange County is pretty behind what they’re doing,” said hotel manager Tom Limberg. “No matter how you feel politically, their families are a few thousand miles away. It’s nice to give them a happy day.”