Single Marines, upon return, will be welcomed

[thedrifter]

Run Date: 05/24/2003
Single Marines, upon return, will be welcomed
By Pat Coleman/Sun Journal Staff



CHERRY POINT -- The wives of Marines who are scheduled to return on Monday with Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 are working to ensure the squadron's more than 300 single Marines know how much their service in Iraq is appreciated.

"It was actually the CO's idea," said Theresa Thoma, the wife of the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Alan L. Thoma. "He wanted the Marines to go in and make up the beds and have all the linens ready for them. We heard about it and thought we could make it even better by personalizing it."

Thoma and the wives of other MWSS-271 officers made cookies, gathered tooth paste, shampoo and other personal care items for goodie bags, and spent Friday decorating all 144 rooms of the squadron's barracks with banners and yellow bows.

"We made and laminated banners saying things like, 'Welcome Home,'" Thoma said. "Each Marine has a big bag full of stuff and a bag of homemade cookies."

Thoma credits Marine Corps Community Services for helping supply items for the bags of personal care products the women helped prepared.

"It's just something to put out so they feel like they're coming home," she said.

Donations for the bags also included sodas and can snuggies, popcorn and phone cards the Marines can use to check in with friends and family members to let them know they have arrived safely in the United States.

"A lot of people and businesses have contributed so much," Thoma said. "It's been great."

The Marines think so, too.

"Coming home knowing that the Marines back here and their families are waiting on them makes them feel that the job they did over there was well appreciated," said Staff Sgt. Sam McInnis, the most senior enlisted Marine who has returned so far.

MWSS-271, which deployed to Iraq with the 24th MEU nine months ago, is one of three Cherry Point squadrons expected to return on Monday morning. Members of MWSS-271, along with five jets and crews from Marine Attack Squadron-231 and Marines from Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 14 served extensively in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Pat Coleman can be reached at 638-8101, ext. 260, or at pat_coleman@link.freedom.com.



Sempers,

Roger