His black No. 17 jersey hangs on the wall of the Eagles Club in Monroe.
Someday, many hope, it will come out of retirement, with its owner, John Wolfer III, stepping out onto a softball field.
Wolfer, 23, is wearing a different uniform now. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps 18 days after the war in Iraq began and recently left for a yearlong deployment in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.
"I’m very, very nervous," said his mother, Theresa Benson. "I don’t want to think about what could happen."
She recalled her son breaking the news that he was joining the military. The war was well under way, but Saddam Hussein’s statue still stood in Baghdad.
"He said, ‘I just want to be like Grandpa.’ What’s a mom to say?"
Benson said she thought the war would be over by the time her son graduated from boot camp in July.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, a span that has held both triumph and tragedy for those in Snohomish County whose lives have been touched by the conflict.
The past year has seen a stunning military victory and the fall of Baghdad, and the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — events that spurred impromptu celebrations in the streets of Everett by its sizable Iraqi community — and the heartwarming homecoming for the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
There has been great sadness as well. Snohomish County mourned its first war death when Justin Hebert, a 20-year-old Army paratrooper from Silvana, was killed. Other soldiers from across the county have come home injured.
While the war is over for some, it continues to cast a shadow of uncertainty over countless others.
Thousands of National Guard soldiers from Washington’s 81st Armored Brigade are expected to arrive in Iraq by the end of the month, joining dozens of others from Snohomish County already there.
Wolfer, the new Marine, arrived in Kuwait earlier this month. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, Elvy Cooper Jr., who served in the Marines in the 1950s. Cooper passed away just before Wolfer enlisted in the Marines and became a machine gunner with the "Thundering Third."
"That’s his niche. That big gun and him are pals," said Wolfer’s grandmother, Karyn Zielasko-Westre.
"I told him, ‘I hope your pal don’t get you in trouble.’"
His family says he’s the strong but silent type, big at 6 feet 2 inches, and proud of his Snohomish Indian heritage. But he’s also someone who needed direction and discipline in his life after graduating from Snohomish High School in 1998.
"I was very proud of him, that he made a choice to do something with his life," his grandmother said.
"When you get laid off from Les Schwab, you know you have nowhere to go."
For many, the one-year anniversary of the start of the war will be like any other, another day of worrying and waiting for the return of a loved one.
Army Spec. Brett Rickard has been in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division since early January. He wasn’t supposed to go to Iraq. He had already completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan, but soldiers from his unit were sent to Iraq to fill in for the 81st Armored Division.
His family was relieved when he made it home safe from Afghanistan. Then came word he was heading to Iraq.
"It’s been a nightmare," said his mother, Debbie Rickard of Silvana. "I have such trouble sleeping at night because I’m so worried bout him..
His mother remembered dropping him off at the airport in January. Her son, who joined the Army with Hebert fresh out of high school, was worried about going to the war that had killed his best friend.
"I was in tears watching him leave. I was thinking it could be the last time I ever see him," she said.
Rickard is stationed at a secure Army post in southern Baghdad. But he has to leave his post daily for patrols and raids. His mother recalled talking to her son last week after he had attended a memorial service for two soldiers in the 82nd who were killed when their Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.
"He’s seeing a lot of things over there a normal 21-year-old wouldn’t see. A lot of death, a lot of destruction," his mother said.
Though the family is very proud of his service, "We just want him home safe," she said.
For other families, the end of the wait came before the end of the war.
Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Brian Hurd made it home just before Halloween. The Everett resident is with the 671st Engineer Company, a Portland-based unit with a detachment in Everett.
Hurd helped build bridges in Iraq and was part of an advance party sent to Kuwait in November 2002. Getting called up for the war meant missing his son Kyle going through kindergarten, the loss of the boy’s baby teeth and the first bike ride without training wheels.
The war meant long days filled with a lot of driving, little sleep and incessant heat. His fellow soldiers, and the camaraderie they shared, made it all worthwhile.
"It had its fun time, and it had its not-so-great fun time. All in all … I would do it again," he said.
Hurd has no expectations of what will happen in Iraq over the next year.
"I just hope that life gets back to normal for everybody involved. That includes the soldiers and the Iraqi citizens," he said.
The obstacles to that happening are numerous.
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who visited Iraq in September, said it was first important to separate the discussion of the military effort that ousted Hussein from the problems that remain in Iraq.
The Iraqi people are better off because Hussein is gone. "There’s no question that Iraqis are better off, that’s not the debate," Larsen said.
"What I see today in Iraq shows both the failure of the Department of Defense to adequately prepare for rebuilding Iraq, and it shows the ingenuity of the women and men of our military to make the best of a very difficult situation."
The insurgency continues to create major security problems, and Iraqi security forces don’t yet have the training or the equipment to take over.
"And they’re not mentally ready to fight the terrorist insurgency," Larsen said. "That has to change.
"If that doesn’t change, our military is going to be there much longer than anybody can tolerate," he added.
There’s still a long way to go for reconstruction of the country, he added, but that’s not the fault of the military.
The United States must learn from Iraq and its involvement in other conflicts in recent years, Larsen said. That includes deepening relationships with other countries so they can help with future peacekeeping and nation-building efforts, and transforming the military to better equip it for its use in war-torn countries after the conflict ends.
Whether Iraq can be transformed to a free and just society depends largely on the Iraqis, said Greg Urwin, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and an expert on U.S. military involvement overseas.
"In the end, they are the ones who are going to have to want to do it, no matter how good of a job we do," he said.
If the United States pulls out too soon, Iraq could become unstable and ripe for a civil war.
"The whole thing could fall to pieces in a few months," Urwin said. "We’re still riding the back of a tiger. It’s not clear how big that tiger is and if we can break him."
For those in the cage while the tiger is being tamed, their families at home make up an increasingly nervous audience.
Benson busies herself with making care packages for her baseball-loving Marine, Wolfer. She hasn’t heard from him in more than a month.
"I pray every night that he stays safe," she said.
She’ll soon have something else to worry about. Benson’s 18-year-old daughter, Hope Ann, has told her mother that she wants to join the Marines like her brother.
And she has already spoken to a recruiter and taken a physical, Benson said.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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