On Christmas Eve, Marine 1st Sgt. Kevin Wiss will turn 39. His mother hopes he’ll spend his birthday safely at home in Southern California, near his base at Camp Pendleton. Right now, he’s in Afghanistan.
“I’ve been on pins and needles the whole time he’s been there,” said Mary Jo Smith, 63, whose son joined the Marine Corps shortly after graduating from Snohomish High School in 1989.
“It’s just really scary,” Smith said. Then she added, “I’m very proud of him.”
In a larger sense, Smith’s mix of pride and worry is shared by millions of Americans who watched President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday night.
In a somber address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Obama announced plans to swiftly order 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan, bringing the total American presence there to more than 100,000.
For Smith, the immediate question is whether Wiss will be back at Camp Pendleton by Dec. 18. That’s the date he expected to return from Afghanistan, but that was before Obama announced the new buildup.
Smith, who lives in east Everett across the Hewitt Avenue trestle, said she hadn’t heard from her son in about a week. “After last night, I’m a little concerned,” she said Wednesday after hearing Obama’s speech.
Year after year — for twice as long as U.S. involvement in World War II — American servicemen and women have shouldered the enormous burdens of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their parents, wives, husbands and children have lived with worry, family and financial hardships, and worse. They are the heroes at home, now being asked to give more — more time apart, more nervous nights, more years of parents not seeing the daily lives of children growing up.
Wiss is with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines Alpha Company — its official Web site says, “Make Peace, Or Die!” His mother said he’s now in Helmand Province in southwest Afghanistan, an area described by the Reuters news agency as “the Taliban’s opium-producing heartland.”
Smith said this is her son’s third tour in Afghanistan; he’s been there since May. “He wanted to go back there,” she said. “He was looking forward to going back there.”
She isn’t sure what his duties entail. Early in his career, he was in motor transportation. “He’s been everywhere — Saudi Arabia, Japan for two years, and he’s been to Iraq,” Smith said. He also taught in an ROTC program at the Illinois Institute of Technology. “He’s got a photo album full of citations,” she said.
He also has a family. Separated from his wife, Wiss has three sons and a daughter, all near Camp Pendleton. Smith hopes that’s where he’ll be by Christmas. His schedule doesn’t allow for a leave or a trip to Everett until early next year.
Smith keeps her own views about Obama’s decision to send more Americans to Afghanistan to herself. Her son is committed to being there. He recently signed on for two more years after celebrating his 20th anniversary as a Marine.
Of her four children, Smith never expected Kevin, a three-sport athlete at Snohomish High, to be the one who’d come home and say, “Sit down, I’m joining the Marines.”
“It was a decision he made,” she said. “He’s had a pretty good career in the Marine Corps.”
He doesn’t tell her about the dangers. “He’s pretty quiet about what they do and what goes on,” Smith said. He does talk about the weather. “A few months ago, it was 120 degrees. When he called on Thanksgiving morning, it was 20 degrees,” she said.
I asked Smith where she would prefer her son to be serving — maybe in Illinois, teaching an ROTC class again?
“Or the University of Washington,” she quipped. The closer, the better. I’m a mom, I understand. And I hope 1st Sgt. Wiss is home for his birthday — home to stay.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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