Town Hews to Code of Semper Fi

Marine Sgt. James Drennan spent Easter Sunday morning in church, one arm wrapped around his wife as she rocked their baby girl.

In the long, narrow sanctuary at Mission San Luis Rey, he listened as the priest spoke of the resurrection of Jesus on the holiest day of the year for Christians.

Father Garret Edmunds spoke of the normal course of life to the parishioners, who spilled into the aisles and out the door. “All of us get sick,” he said. “All of us will get old, and all of us will eventually die.”

But after a week in which 25 of his fellow Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton were killed in heavy fighting in Iraq, Drennan said he already had learned that not everyone grows old and that death can come sooner than it should.

“I know a lot of people over there,” said Drennan, 22, an artillery specialist just back from his second deployment to the Middle East. “I know people who didn’t come back.”

In Oceanside, longtime residents said their thoughts during the holiday week were with the Marines who have long been part of this military town.

Residents had waited anxiously in recent days, knowing that more than a dozen Camp Pendleton Marines had died in one day of fighting, but not knowing, at first, who they were.

By Sunday, with the release of the 25th name, many people here -- military and civilian -- remain resolute about the mission overseas and realistic about the risks of military service.

Rebecca Flores, 36, said her 15-year-old son, Jose, makes her proud in his khaki uniform of the junior Marine ROTC at El Camino High School. “A lot of things in life are dangerous,” she said. “You may think you’re steering your child into something safe, but is it really?”

Flores said she would be proud if her son chooses to join the military in a few years. “We’re Americans,” she said. “As long as I believe in God -- whether I’m in church every Sunday or not -- and that’s the path my son chooses, then so be it.”

Art Haenichen, 42, a bartender at the Riverbottom bar down the road from the historic Mission San Luis Rey, said, “You can just look out into any parking lot here and just about every car has a U.S. Marine Corps sticker and an American flag.”

Over the pool table hangs the Marine insignia, although Haenichen said with so many troops overseas, fewer and fewer servicemen and women have been stopping by.

At the corner gas station, another red and gold banner is draped over the door: “Oceanside, Proud Home of the 1st Marine Division. Semper Fi.”

Downtown, blocks from the ocean on a nearly cloudless afternoon, dozens of Marines walked in groups or with young families. At a barbershop, men waited to have their crew cuts trimmed. At an Internet cafe, young Marines far from home sat playing video games.

How Oceanside and the Marine Corps have become intertwined over the years is reflected in the marriage of Drennan and his wife, Erin, 21.

A tall, pretty woman with warm brown eyes, she was born and raised in Oceanside. Her grandparents were born and raised in Oceanside. Her grandparents were married at the mission -- the original grounds of which now make up much of Camp Pendleton. She met her husband almost four years ago, a year after he first joined the Marine Corps and left behind his native Homestead, Fla.

When she married Drennan a year ago next month, she was clear-eyed about the life of a Marine wife.

On the day their daughter, Alisen, was born four months ago, her husband was still overseas, serving near the town of Safra in southern Iraq. He got word of his child’s birth through a Red Cross messenger.

He saw his dark-haired daughter for the first time in an e-mailed photo. On the day he got back home last month, Erin Drennan waited nine hours for him to disembark and meet their baby.

“It was really hard on both of us,” he said of being away, “but that’s the choice I made when I went into the military.”

In October, Drennan reenlisted for another tour. He plans to serve 20 years. “I want him to,” his wife said, noting with him that he could retire at 38 if he stays in the Corps.

Still, she has found it easier to live off base. “We don’t eat, breathe and live the Marine Corps like some families do,” she said.

Recent days have brought waves of bad news from Iraq. On Sunday morning, the Pentagon released the names of three more Marines killed last week in Iraq, two of them based in California.

Particularly hard hit has been the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based at Camp Pendleton and includes troops stationed in Twentynine Palms.

“People are spending time with their families,” said 1st Lt. Amy Malugani, a media officer whose office was deluged with calls from reporters around the nation last week seeking information about Marines who had died.

The pace slowed Sunday, with only one new death reported among the base’s Marines serving in Iraq. Cpl. Matthew E. Matula, 20, of Burnett, Texas, was killed Friday by hostile fire in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, officials said.

Of the 25,000 Marines serving in Iraq, 14,000 are based at Camp Pendleton.

The name of another California-based Marine killed Friday, Lance Cpl. Elias Torrez III, 21, of Veribest, Texas, also was released Sunday. He was based at Twentynine Palms.

With the deployments overseas, Drennan said, stress on the base is elevated, something he would prefer to shield his wife from as much as possible.

The world is a much different place than when he joined five years ago, he said, but the job remains the same. “It’s always been a dangerous job,” Drennan said.

During Holy Week, as the names of the dead were released to the public, Drennan said he and his fellow Marines chose to honor them traditionally.

“The truth is, I don’t know many religious Marines and I’m not religious myself,” he said. “We acknowledge Marines who have passed in our own way. We had a half-mast ceremony and silence on base.”

As prayers were offered during Mass on Sunday, the Drennans stood side by side.

“For the men and women who are deployed overseas and for world peace,” prayed the lector.

“Lord hear our prayer,” the congregants answered.

Drennan wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist and kissed her cheek.

*

Times staff writer Deborah Schoch contributed to this report.