MILITARY: 369th Attack Helicopter Squadron leaves for Anbar province

By Jim Rothgeb - For The North County Times | Sunday, November 2, 2008 8:25 PM PST ∞

CAMP PENDLETON ---- About 9:30 Sunday morning, Marine Cpl. Bryan Straw was pacing around his gear in a helicopter hangar like a boxer ready to face his biggest challenge.

Wearing camouflage and a military rifle slung over his shoulder, Straw said impatiently, "I just want to get under way. I’m ready to go."

His sentiments echoed throughout the building as 340 Marines and sailors attached to the 369th Attack Helicopter Squadron said goodbye to loved ones to embark on a seven-month deployment to Iraq’s Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Their mission will be to provide security, air support and medical evacuations for ground troops in the province between Iraq’s capital and the Syrian border.

About 25,000 Marines continue to serve there, many of them from Camp Pendleton.

This is Straw’s second deployment to Iraq. The avionics technician was among the squadron members who served a seven-month deployment that ended exactly a year ago.

He is accustomed to saying goodbye, and yet it still isn’t easy for him.

“I already sent my wife (Tiffani) and son (Bryson) home," Straw said about a half-hour before the buses loaded with Marines left the hangar. “There’s no reason to get all crazy like it’s going to be around here in a few minutes."

And he was right. Among last-minute tears, hugs and kisses, the Marines left rather silently, knowing their lives in America will be put on hold until at least May.

"We’ve moved around a lot while we’ve been in the Marines, and that’s not so hard because he’s always around to help," said Kim Zamagni, whose husband, Lt. Col. Bill Zamagni, is the 369th’s commanding officer. "But saying goodbye to him like this ---- that never gets easier."

This is the Zamagni’s sixth deployment in his 17-year career in the Marines. The first came in 2003, around the birth of their only child, Spenser, and the start of the war in Iraq.

"The first thing you think about when you get there is to make sure that all of our Marines arrived safely," Zamagni said. "Then you think about the other things, like getting acclimated to an 11-hour time difference. We’ve been trained to do a variety of jobs here and we’ll go to wherever we are assigned."

First Lt. Kevin Lehman of Oceanside is making his first deployment to Iraq. The Super Cobra helicopter pilot said he has heard a lot of stories about life in the war-torn country, including how things have improved.

"I’ve been told we’re making great progress there," Lehman said. "People say it’s a lot better now than it was four or five years ago."

And that comes as a great relief to Mary and Paul VanDoren, whose son, Cpl. Phillip VanDoren, is making his second deployment.

"We’re a lot more confident that he’ll be OK this time than when he went last year," Mary VanDoren said. "We’re very proud of him. And they have a lot of Marines over there now looking out for each other."

The deployed squadron will miss the holidays with their families. Some will miss their children’s birthdays, along with first steps and school assemblies and Saturday soccer matches.

Others will miss the San Diego Chargers’ run for the Super Bowl and the Padres’ opening day.

Most, however, said they cast their Election Day ballots early.

And they also will miss Iraq’s oppressive summer heat, where temperatures on runways often reach 150 degrees, according to Straw, who lost 50 pounds in his first deployment.

But the word from those who know is that wintertime in that country is no picnic, either.

"I’ve been told I should take a really good pair of shower shoes," said 1st Lt. Robert Monroe of Carlsbad, a Cobra pilot making his first deployment. "Because in the winter, it’s cold, it rains a lot, and there’s even some snow. So you have to move pretty fast to and from the showers."

From Camp Pendleton, the Marine squadron bused to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside to begin its two-day journey to Anbar Province.

Most of the helicopters and equipment they will be using are already there.

But that didn’t mean much to the Marines who waited to board those buses Sunday. Their thoughts about home and the immediate future were in a tug of war.

"The hardest part about this whole thing is the separation," said Cpl. Jeremy Royce, who stood with is wife, Thea, and their 18-month-old son, Devon, just before departure.

He said at least he had a chance to see his son, dressed as Spider-Man, celebrate Halloween. Then Royce’s thoughts shifted.

"That’s another thing I’ve heard about Iraq in the winter," he said. "They have really big spiders."