At Pendleton: Paying Bills, Updating Wills

Marine Cpl. Jacki Cogan’s eyes welled with tears Friday as she anticipated traveling to Somalia and leaving her 3-month-old daughter behind.

“It just breaks my heart,” said Cogan, 23, one of hundreds of troops at Camp Pendleton who were making last-minute preparations to participate in the U.N. mission to ensure the delivery of food to starving Somalis.

Of the 28,000 troops the United States has promised to send to Somalia to protect deliveries to the strife-torn East African nation, at least 4,000 will come from this northern San Diego County base, said Lt. Col. Mark Thiffault, a base spokesman.

The majority of them are expected to ship out within 10 days. About 1,800 Marines, including some from Pendleton, are already on ships in the Red Sea, awaiting further orders.

There was much to do to get the lives of their families and loved ones in order before the Marines departed. On Friday, the troops lined up to get shots and to receive new issues of desert camouflage uniforms, the same kind they wore two Christmases ago during the Operation Desert Shield campaign in Saudi Arabia.

Groups of Marines also gathered to update their wills, beef up their life insurance policies and make certain that their medical records included the names of next of kin. They were also paying bills and putting bank accounts in order so spouses could keep households running smoothly.

Not only did the announcement of the Marines’ mission in Somalia come as a surprise, they said, but they were still uncertain when they will leave or how long they will be away.

Pfc. Mitchell Morgan figures he will probably be in Somalia in two weeks when he turns 20. Morgan, part of the approximately 300-person landing-support unit that was informed Tuesday of its deployment to Somalia, said: “We were shocked. We weren’t expecting it.”

Lt. David Steele, who also expects to ship out to Somalia soon, said he and his wife celebrated their 10th anniversary Wednesday night because he expects to be gone in a few weeks when they would normally celebrate. Steele, 28, said he has also tried to spend time “briefing” his three children about where their father will be, showing them Somalia’s location on a map.

During official briefings, the troops were told to expect hardships.

Once they are in Somalia, they expect it will be weeks before they have any contact with their families. A 21-year-old Marine from Waco, Tex., reported that the Pendleton troops have been told to plan to be gone “at least 60 days, but all of us are thinking (we will be away) at least six months.”

“It will be hot, and we will be eating dehydrated stuff for at least a month, and there will be no running water,” he said. “We will be living out of tents, without running water.”

Like many of the unmarried Pendleton Marines, he had to pack all his belongings in the barracks and put them in storage. He updated his will, leaving his brand-new Chevrolet truck and $1,500 in savings bonds to his parents.

“My mom said she didn’t want me to go,” the Marine said. “I said I had no choice.” He said it is hard on his parents because he is “the baby of the family.”

Damian Moreno, 21, an administrative clerk, said the troops know that in Somalia, “there are no lines for phones and it will take at least 10 days for mail to get there.”

As they were making other tough preparations, getting shots was an especially unpleasant part of the Somali mission for the Marines. “Needles make me pass out,” said Cpl. Cory Sharp, a six-foot Marine who almost fainted after receiving a shot of gamma globulin for protection from hepatitis.

Besides the real prospect of vaccinations, the unknowns, particularly the uncertainty of how the Marines’ presence will be accepted in a faraway land, frightened many of the troops, Cogan said.

“I’m scared to death,” she said. “All we know is what we see on TV.”

Of course, the worst part of the Somali mission is its timing: It will keep the Marines away from loved ones during the holidays.

For Cogan, a single parent, that will be the toughest part of the operation: leaving behind her tiny daughter, Erin Leigh. Cogan’s mother flew in from Texas and will take the baby back home with her until her daughter returns.

“I tell her about a hundred times I love her,” Cogan said.

But she also is leaving behind a token of herself for comfort--she gave her mother photos of herself to show the baby so the infant doesn’t forget what she looks like. And while she is away in the desert, helping starving families, she will carry with her more than a dozen photos of her child.