A Family Day: Captain Home for a 1st Birthday

Her own shrieks and tears going unnoticed in the emotional tableau of a warriors’ homecoming, Lynn Bierschenk on Saturday night finally welcomed home her Marine husband.

It came in a moment of solitude amidst the jubilant chaos of families reunited at Camp Pendleton.

Ignoring the swarm of hundreds of other wives, children and parents welcoming home nearly 400 Marines, Lynn dissolved into the intimacy of her husband’s embrace.

She and Capt. Monte Bierschenk just stood and clutched each other.

Then he hugged his two young daughters, making good on a promise he had made months earlier in the sands of Saudi Arabia: that he would be home for Samantha’s first birthday.

He made it. The party is today.

In an embrace he said to her, “I love you.” “I love you too,” she answered.

“This is the best homecoming ever,” he said.

In a sense, the final wait Saturday night was more frustrating than the previous seven months; families were told to arrive on base by 6:30 p.m. But the chartered 747 plane didn’t land at March Air Force Base until 6:10 p.m. And the Marines then had to be bused for about 90 minutes to reach Camp Pendleton.

Even with a California Highway Patrol escort, the seven white buses couldn’t travel faster than 70 m.p.h. And once on base, the Marines--troops of the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment--still had to deposit their weapons at the base armory while their families worked to stay warm in the brisk evening air.

Finally, at 9 p.m., the buses arrived, sparking cheers and chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Bierschenk’s two children--5-year-old Jessamie and the 1-year-old held up well--even if a bottle of milk had long since spilled.

The Bierschenks found their place near the front of the crowd and strained to spot Monte, a helicopter pilot, in a sea of desert camouflage uniforms.

Unfolding were the closing minutes of what had been a long day.

It started early for Lynn, decorating the couple’s family home in Oceanside with red, white, blue and yellow balloons and red, white and blue garland over the fireplace with several large signs, including one that read simply, “Welcome Back!”

Helping was her mother-in-law, Dorothy Paulsen, who arrived here from her Nebraska home earlier in the week to celebrate her granddaughter’s first birthday--not realizing she would be here to share in her son’s homecoming.

Even the family aquarium was plastered with two large decals--one of an American flag, the other of a yellow ribbon.

Atop a small hutch was a wilted rose. “I got it the day the war started, Jan. 16,” Lynn said. “Since it’s still standing in its vase, I haven’t wanted to throw it away.”

That’s not all that has wilted in the house. Lynn admitted that she has cried a lot since her husband left for Saudi Arabia on Aug. 12. He had been home only two days after being away all of July for training in Virginia.

“I’ve been breaking out in hives,” she said of the anxiety, “but the last time I cried was when I learned the war was over, and that was OK.”

On the wall was a striking oil painting drawn by a staff sergeant in Monte’s unit, depicting a Cobra helicopter firing two rockets.

Ironically, Monte had been trained as a pilot for the gunship, but in July, he was trained to work with ground troops as a forward air controller, working shoulder to shoulder with infantrymen calling in air strikes for support.

“The war breaks out and my husband, a pilot, finds himself on the ground,” Lynn said with a laugh.

Outside, the entire street had been bedecked with yellow ribbons, American flags, and welcome-home banners, all for Monte.

In fact, a steady stream of neighbors and telephone calls kept Lynn, her two children and her mother-in-law at home until 5 p.m. They left then, figuring they had plenty of time to get to the base half an hour away for the scheduled 6:30 p.m. arrival of her husband and 400 fellow Marines.

But traffic slowed to a frustrating crawl at the border patrol checkpoint and the group did not get to the parade grounds until 6:15 p.m.

Lynn looked resplendent in her navy blue and white dress and black heels. The children were equally dressed to the nines.

They hung onto a bouquet of 10 helium-filled balloons, centered by a balloon that proclaimed, “Monte, I Love U.”

“These things are a real nuisance,” Lynn laughed, as they continually smacked her in the face.