Not home for the holidays
Heading for Bosnia in December is tough on soldiers, families
December 23, 1995
Web posted at: 11:05 a.m. EST (1605 GMT)From Correspondent Bill Delaney
BAD KREUZNACH, Germany (CNN) -- For most of the more than 10,000 soldiers of the U.S. 1st Armored Division, the holidays this year have been a series of farewells -- leaving, or just waiting to leave.
It's kept Rev. Scott McChrystal busy. "What I hear most is, when am I going," said the 1st Armored Division's Chaplain. "The uncertainty in not knowing -- will I spend Christmas here, will it be in Bosnia -- and that's hard." (136K AIFF sound or 136K WAV sound)
When people are supposed to come together, it's hard to have to go. As thousands set off for Bosnia, the soldiers of the 1st Armored Division -- and their families -- speak out.
"Americans in general want peace on earth," said Capt. Grant Coleman. "In the future you hope that all those warring factions can get along. You gotta try, you gotta start somewhere, and it looks like it's gonna be us." (162K AIFF sound or 162K WAV sound)
Coleman's wife, Birshari, says she sees the deployment as necessary. "It's not one of the happier things," she said, "for your family to be split apart ... but I feel like it's a worthwhile mission." (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound)
For Warrant Officer Manny Vasquez, the orders to go to Bosnia are simply understood. "I volunteered to come in the military when I was 17," he said. "Nobody forced me to come in."
And for Vasquez's wife Delma, this holiday season will be "a lonely one, kind of sad."
"We don't have any kids," she said," but I know a lot of families that have kids. It's gonna be kind of sad, but that comes with the military life."
It is sad, hard, and tough on the children of these soldiers. "Me and my mom are mad," said one, "because we rarely get to see my dad. Because this past year, he's been in Haiti, and now we come over here." (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound)
Teachers and parents struggle to explain. "I don't think that President Clinton suddenly decided -- 'I'm gonna mess up the 1st Armored Division's Christmas by sending them out there,'" one teacher told her class.
Sgt. Eddie Molina said that the hardest part about leaving for Bosnia is leaving behind his family. He's being up front with the children about why he's going, and says he told them he'll be back "hopefully sometime before December of next year."
"Christmas is tough," said Sgt. Eddie Sumlin. "But I believe it's for a good cause. People are being annihilated...and it needs to be stopped."
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