Chow Line, Lifeline to Home

Pvt. Michael Schrock was sure he had reached his breaking point.

As he neared the midpoint of a brutal five-mile hike along a steep, muddy trail during boot camp at Camp Pendleton this summer, Schrock had blisters on his feet. He was crushed by a 65-pound backpack and encumbered by rifle, helmet and other gear. He stopped to catch his breath and reached for the breast pocket of his jacket.

Inside was a precious picture of his family, wrapped in clear tape -- he hadn’t had time to get it laminated. He took one look and dug in deeper.

“I just peeked at it,” Schrock, 21, said later. “Crawling through all that mud, I was afraid I wouldn’t make it. They’re what I’m fighting for -- it kept me going.”

To Schrock, his family was everything. Even when they weren’t always together under the same roof, even when he had a few scrapes with the law, his family rallied around him -- especially when he enlisted in the Marine Corps.

So it meant that much more to him on Thanksgiving Day -- a day he could not spend with his own family in Paris, Texas -- that Schrock had another home where he could spend the day. Like many others in communities surrounding Camp Pendleton, a San Clemente family invited a dozen young men to share their holiday Thursday.

Members of the host family, who wished to keep the spotlight on the Marines, agreed to allow a reporter to observe the occasion on the condition that they not be identified.

The Marines were picked up from their base at 9 a.m. and returned by 6 p.m. They spent most of the day calling home on cellphones and sitting on patio chairs around a backyard pingpong table.

Upstairs, some surfed the Internet -- a rare treat -- sending e-mails and playing computer games. Others indulged in the ordinary holiday rituals of home: sitting around the television watching football and nibbling on pretzel sticks and slices of ham.

For Pfc. Jordan Meek, 20, of Conroy, Iowa, spending his first Thanksgiving away from home was rough.

“It’s hard,” he said. “Thanksgiving and Christmas are the times when I get to see my entire family -- there’s at least 30 or 40 of us -- and that’s when I get to see the cousins I haven’t seen for months, and we have a chance to hang out.

“I’d probably be really depressed if I wasn’t doing something with a family,” he said. “It’s easier when families are as giving as this one.”

Pvt. David Greenman, 19, of Traverse City, Mich., agreed that being away from home on traditional family holidays was tough -- but part of the job.

“I guess it’s the sacrifice you make when you join the Marine Corps,” he said.

Nearly all the Marines were straight out of high school and just weeks out of boot camp -- and still reeling from the experience.

They expect to be sent to the Middle East by next spring.

Sitting on the edge of a lawn chair Thursday, Schrock pulled the tattered picture of his family from his pants pocket. Bits of dirt still clung to its edges.

“I really miss home,” he said with a heavy voice. “I got done talking to my mom 10 minutes ago and my family. They were all in line getting their turkey. It really makes me want to go home.”

Last year at this time, Schrock was trying to pull his life together after getting in trouble with the law.

He called the Navy and the Army -- they said thanks, but no thanks. The Marine Corps recruiter was the only one who stuck with him.

Schrock spent a few months in community college and moved back in with his mother as part of an effort to clean up his act and persuade the Corps to take him.

“We weren’t supposed to have any pictures or anything, and I didn’t think this would make it through there either, but it did,” he said.

“Everywhere I go, this is going with me.” The picture shows Schrock, his mother, stepfather, stepsister and younger brother. He carefully replaced it in his back pocket.

“I wanted to make my family proud,” Schrock said. “My mom tells me every time I talk to her, she’s glad I did something with my life.”