lydibug's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the paper today... Posted on Fri, Mar. 21, 2003
P.G. mom scans TV for glimpse of Marine son By JONATHAN SEGAL KimMarie Gaye keeps her TV tuned to ABC. It's not "Alias" that has her riveted. Her interest is much more personal. She's looking for her son. He's Cpl. Kythe Robert Stillwell of the U.S. Marine Corps, and his unit is moving through Iraq. ABC News correspondent Mike Cerre is "embedded" with them. Gaye, of Pacific Grove, says she's trying not to obsess over the news, but it's hard when her son is on the front lines. "At night, when I can't sleep, I watch it for hours on end," she said Thursday, about an hour after her son's unit crossed the Iraqi border. "We're focused on Kythe." She's not alone. In Fresno, Stillwell's grandparents also mine the TV for information about their grandson, a 1999 graduate of Pacific Grove High School. "We haven't had ABC turned off. The newsman that's in Kuwait has been broadcasting right where Kythe is, so we're following him down the line," said Eleanor Pozar, 79, Kythe's grandmother. "They are so free with the information that they hand out now, it's amazing." Pozar said the flow of facts and speculation about their grandson's position doesn't bring relief, though. "I don't call being at the front very comforting," she said. "Luckily, we can see the things going on. We are able to somewhat keep track of him." The news isn't the only place where the family gets information about Stillwell. Gaye also finds it on the Web, networking with other Marine moms on sites and chat rooms. The other day she found a picture of her son on a Marine Corps Web site. He was posing with a buddy in front of his "Amtrak," the giant tanklike troop carrier he drives into battle. "I know that there are a lot of moms and dads out there, and boyfriends and girlfriends, and we are all for our kids," Gaye said. On the Web, she reconnected with acquaintances from years ago who also have a son in the Corps. She learned that the two Marines, who had been childhood friends, had run into one another in the Kuwaiti desert. "Our two sons are actually out there together," she said. "There's 50,000 Marines out there and the chance of two guys who grew up together in the San Joaquin Valley to find each other is pretty incredible." But the best source of information, she's found, doesn't depend on fiber-optic lines or coaxial cables. Like millions of mothers before her, an old-fashioned letter gives Gaye reassurance. Since her son shipped out for Kuwait on Feb. 3, she's received two letters from him. The latest arrived this week on U.S. Marine Corps stationery emblazoned with the Corps' anchor-and-globe logo and a half-toned print of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. His grandfather served in World War II, his father in Vietnam. Now, Stillwell's prose rings with the echo of past dispatches. "To tell a little about here, it's sandy and brown, as far as the eye can see. But life here is not so bad, just very simple," Stillwell writes. "I find myself enjoying laundry days and time to shower -- that's how I spend my weekends out in the sand." Stillwell's letters are filled with details both personal and mundane, urging his mother not to worry about him and thanking her for keeping up with his bills while he's gone. To soothe her worries, Gaye prays a lot, and, at night, writes poetry: "I want my son at home now, I want to feel him near, But news is on the TV, And all I feel is fear."
9:19 am - Friday, Mar. 21, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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