IRVINE : Job Done, Ribbons Removed

Marine Staff Sgt. Ronald Contreras twisted the faded yellow ribbon in his hands over and over as he stood at El Toro Marine Elementary School on Friday.

He and about 100 fellow personnel from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station came to the school Friday to remove the ribbons that their children had tied to the school’s fence last fall when the Marines were shipped to the Persian Gulf before Operation Desert Storm.

As dozens of yellow ribbons were removed, another 10 children put up new ribbons to honor parents who remain in that area.

Contreras said he learned about the ribbons adorning the fence from his children--Matthew, 8, and Jennifer, 7--before he was sent to Saudi Arabia.

“When we went over there, they told us about the fence and their hope that we would come home safe,” said Contreras, an airplane mechanic who spent seven months in Saudi Arabia. “It helped us to know that.”

Contreras’ children stood next to him Friday. At one point, Matthew, a third-grader, looked up and said: “I love you, Dad.”

“I’m just glad my dad got to come home,” he added later.

Located just north of the base, the Irvine Unified School District campus has 600 students, 588 of whom are children of military personnel. About half of the students had mothers, fathers or other relatives in the Persian Gulf during the war, said Principal Dan Graham.

“It was really emotional last September for the teachers and the students when we put up the ribbons,” Graham said. “They were really excited that it was time to take the ribbons down.”

The children swarmed over the fence as they removed the ribbons. Many had written the name of their Marine relative on the ribbon they had put up.

Matthew Green said he was “pretty nervous” last fall when he tied a yellow ribbon for his uncle, Lt. Col. George Fick, to the fence. He had attached a small medallion inscribed with “Welcome Home.”

“Matthew wrote us a letter and sent us pictures of the fence,” said Fick, who commanded a Stinger antiaircraft missile battalion. “This type of support meant so much to us who were over there. My unit received box after box of letters and stuff from people and that was gratifying.”

Roeshaun Lewis was one of the children who put up a ribbon Friday. His father--Staff Sgt. Charles Lewis--has been in Saudi Arabia for five months and is scheduled to come home June 29.

“I miss him and I’m nervous,” Roeshaun said. “When he comes home, he said we could go to Sea World.”