A Marine"s Story

September, 2007 - It has been nearly three years since I created this site and I've decided to give it a fresh look. I still miss him everyday but I believe the best way to honour his memory is to live my life to the fullest, as he would want me to do.

Jen

(Written in November 2004, immediately after Dale's death)

Dale is my baby brother and he died on Sunday. I’m not a very good writer but I want everyone to remember him. It’s hard because in my head he is still a baby I can’t really believe that this has happened. I want everyone to know who he was.


If any of you know my family you know that we are a Marine family. My father, Dale Sr., was a Marine and a Vietnam veteran. Dale always wanted to be a Marine too.

Dad suffered from various health problems for most of my life, in part because he was wounded in Vietnam. His health worsened when I was eleven years old (Dale was nine). He lapsed into a coma and when he awoke two or so weeks later he had brain damage and was never the same.

This made life in our family really difficult. Mom had to take care of the three of us kids (I have a younger sister too) plus dad. Dad’s brain damage made him really difficult to deal with and be around. Dale struggled but was able to stay focused because of his dream of being a Marine.

When Dale was sixteen he left school and got his GED so he could join the Marines at age seventeen. I remember when graduated from boot camp he told me it was the happiest day of his life.

Dale was deployed three times, twice to Iraq. Until the last day he always loved being a Marine.


Reporters have told Dale’s story, similar to the one above, but that’s not really important and that’s not really how I want him remembered. Because that’s not a person’s life, that a soldier’s life, and Dale was more than a soldier. So here’s how I remember Dale.


Thursday, September 13, 2007

Dale's First Deployment

Originally written in November 2004

This is Dale in East Timor, part of his first deployment. Here he is part of a UN peacekeeping mission. Those are his glasses and hat on the little boy.


Dale really changed a lot while he was in the Marines, especially after his first time in Iraq. At first I know he thought it was fun most of the time. In his first deployment he went to the Middle East and all over the South Pacific. I think this was his favorite deployment. He told me lots of stories of things he did with his friends and brought back lots of presents. I think he went to every Hard Rock Café in the South Pacific and I have the T-Shirts to prove it. I think he really enjoyed it. Back home we would get pictures and boxes of presents he would buy us.

I know he was home for Christmas that year… 2002 I think. That was the last Christmas we spent together because I was in London in 2003. One thing about Dale is that he was really good at giving presents. In previous years he gave me things such as perfume and Clinique stuff. I was always impressed that he, being a boy, would think to give such great gifts. (Maybe it has something to do with all the sisters..?) However, the last Christmas I saw him he gave me a necklace (which I wore to my wedding), two inlaid jewelry boxes, and a carved wooden warrior statue for protection. I feel like these gifts were more thoughtful and meaningful and are now some of my most important possessions.

Posted by Jennifer at 6:30 PM

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)