{"id":452982,"date":"2010-03-20T15:33:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T19:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a95ad831970b"},"modified":"2010-03-20T15:35:54","modified_gmt":"2010-03-20T19:35:54","slug":"pendleton-marines-deploy-to-afghanistan-some-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/452982","title":{"rendered":"Pendleton Marines deploy to Afghanistan, some for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Deployment1\"<\/a> Jerry Germenis was sitting in his seventh-grade English class in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2001, when the math teacher — a normally taciturn sort — rushed into the room with tears in his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurn on the TV, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York,\u201d he blurted.<\/p>\n

Within  weeks, combat Marines from Camp Pendleton became the first conventional U.S. troops into Afghanistan, helping to topple the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden and his followers.<\/p>\n

Now, nearly nine years later, Marines from this sprawling base are again taking a lead role in the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Germenis, 22, a computer specialist and Marine lance corporal, was among several hundred Marines who left Saturday for Camp Leatherneck. The base is located in southern Afghanistan, in the middle of Helmand Province, which, until recently, was a Taliban stronghold.<\/p>\n

For the first-timers,  memories of Sept. 11 lingered.\"Deployment2\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being shocked and then full of regret that I was too young to enlist,\u201d said Germenis, who enlisted after two years in college.  He\u2019d like to be an officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the best officers were enlisted first,\u201d he said. \u201cRead \u2018Starship Troopers,\u2019 it\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the Marines who left Saturday have made multiple war-zone deployments — for example,  Gunnery Sgt. Jeremy Alexander, 30, is on his sixth, although the first since the birth a month ago of his son, Chase.<\/p>\n

Like Germenis, Cpl. Kelly Burgess, 20, is making her first trip to Afghanistan. She was in school in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., on Sept.  11.  Now she\u2019s a supply clerk , leaving her 6-month-old son, Dominik, in the care of her husband, Jon Burgess, 21, who just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m as ready as you can be,\u201d said Burgess, sitting beside her husband and gently rocking their son in his stroller.<\/p>\n

Her husband, she said, is having trouble with the role reversal. \u201cHe\u2019s  just trying to deal with it,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s the one used to deploying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cpl. Adam Miller, 20, remembers how he and other students were hustled into the middle-school  gym in Mason, Mich., to watch the breaking news on television on Sept. 11. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s a tuba player in the 1st Marine Division band. In Afghanistan, he\u2019ll be a guard, shifting duties from musical to tactical.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my new instrument,\u201d said Miller, patting his M-16. <\/p>\n

— Tony Perry<\/p>\n

Top photo: <\/em>Cpl.
\nKelly Burgess, 20, waits with her husband, Jon, and their 6-month-old son,
\nDominik. Her husband just returned from Afghanistan; now it's her turn. Credit: Tony Perry<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom photo: <\/em>Cpl.
\nAdam Miller, 20, is a tuba player with the 1st Marine Division band. In
\nAfghanistan, he'll be a security guard, trading in his tuba for an M-16. Credit: Tony Perry<\/o:p><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jerry Germenis was sitting in his seventh-grade English class in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2001, when the math teacher — a normally taciturn sort — rushed into the room with tears in his eyes. \u201cTurn on the TV, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York,\u201d he blurted. Within  weeks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}