Businesses Treat Marines’ Families to Some R

Some were proud. Others, weary or bitter.

But nearly all 750 wives and children of U.S. Marines deployed in 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 married to enlisted men, dined from an elegant buffet and listened to a celebrity dance band in a ballroom decked out in yellow ribbons, carnations and balloons.

In another room, 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 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 deployed in the gulf and more are preparing to leave, Johnston said.

“This is the first support the wives in our squadron have had since (the deployment) in August,” said Harville, whose husband, Top, a master sergeant, is in Bahrain. He has told her that morale is plummeting in the gulf for a variety of reasons, including discrepancies in living conditions for officers and enlisted men.

Harville also said she sent a letter two weeks ago to the Pentagon asking for more support for spouses, but has not received an 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.”

Harville came to the free party with her two children, Jeffrey, 12, and Steven, 5.

The children ate hot dogs and mingled with volunteers dressed as a Ninja Turtle, Batman, Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. Some played war with long balloons as swords.

Others fashioned valentines out of lace and pipe cleaners. “I Love you Daddy. Love Rachel,” said one decorated with wooden hearts.

The party arrived on the heels of disappointing news for those such as Judi Burch of Irvine, who had expected her husband, Dave, to return home in a troop rotation in February. 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,” Burch said.

Her only child, Christopher, 9, has had occasional stress-related breathing problems since his father, an air traffic controller, left Aug. 18, she said. A pediatrician told her he will recover when he accepts the situation, Burch said.

Christopher said his father used to take him snorkeling every night in the community pool. He misses his father and sends him his schoolwork and talks to him on the phone.

“I’m proud of him,” he said as a peace sign was painted on his face. The boy also planned to send his father a photo of himself taken at the party as he sat on Santa’s lap and asked for a pair of Roller Blades-style skates.

Former Army Green Beret Gerry Rush, corporate travel director for the hotel, thought of the idea of 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 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. The event included sign-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 open Sunday at the bases so that women with very young children could attend the brunch.

The hotel hoisted a 20-by-16-foot yellow ribbon on its facade Sunday, 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.”

Some wives, such as Lisa Soto of Irvine, said they were treating the deployment as any routine rotation. She said her husband, Capt. Alfred Soto, is a career military officer and is serving “somewhere near a place that begins with a D.”

She brought their 4-year-old twins, Amanda and Alicia, to the party. Each had hearts painted on her cheeks.

“We’re tough, right?” she asked. The two nodded pleasantly. “We’re Marine Corps kids, right?” Four hearts bobbed up and down. “We’re prepared. Right?” More nodding.

“They’re celebrities at school,” the mother said.