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Picatinny Welcomes Home Marine Reserve Company G
By Myra Hess
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| The Lekkas family welcomes home Sgt. "T.G." Lekkas, 30, from Glenwood, N.J. with homemade banners. |
Picatinny opened its arms and heart to welcome home the Marines Reservists from Company G, 2nd Battalion, 25th Regiment Aug. 1.
The Marine reservists from all over the Northeast, who meet here monthly, had been activated and deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in March and were now coming home fortunately with no casualties!
They had been stationed in An Nasiriyah in Iraq's Dhi Qar province for four months.
Within hours of learning they were returning, the Picatinny workforce went to work to ensure there would be a happy homecoming.
While friends and family waited in the rain for Company G's arrival up at the Navy Hill area where the Marine Reserve Center is located, employees gathered on First Street with banners, signs and umbrellas to cheer on the cavalcade of seven buses when they drove by.
Picatinny's Fire Department parked two fire trucks on each side of the road, arched the ladders over First St. and hung a welcome home banner.
Meanwhile Picatinny's Motor Pool drivers were shuttling family members and friends from a parking lot to the Reserve Center.
Company G arrived three hours later than expected, but that didn't dampen the spirit, excitement and anxiety of their loved ones.
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| Families, like these, hug and kiss as soon as the formation was over. |
Family and friends didn't mind the mist and humidity that clung to them while they waited and waited for the buses to arrive.
They stood there for several hours chatting with each other holding up their red, white and blue balloons and signs; some homemade, others furnished by Army Community Service.
The Salvation Army set up a mobile canteen providing refreshments for the group while they waited.
Local reporters from 12 different outlets weaved their way through the crowd interviewing family members who were anxiously awaiting their loved ones while photographers snapped away.
Finally the police escort sirens announced the arrival of the ironically named "Holiday Tour" buses.
Cheers and happy tears flowed from the crowd as they watched the buses with horns honking advance up the hill and turn into the Marine Reserve parking lot.
Just to make the suspense more painful, the Marines had to go into final formation first before they could touch and hug their wives, girlfriends, parents, relatives and friends.
Company commander Maj. Anthony Lanza, a DEA agent in New York, spoke to the crowd welcoming all the family and friends who had gathered and thanked everyone including Picatinny for the wonderful homecoming events.
Once they were released from formation, the guys ran to hug and kiss their relatives.
It was an emotional and heartwarming sight!
Some of the Marines saw their babies for the first time while others were reunited with their families.
It was wonderful bedlam!
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| Marine Reservist Lance Cpl. Steven Rogers II from Nutley, N.J. (right) salutes his father Navy Reservist Lt. Cmdr. Steven Rogers after he disembarks from the bus. Both father and son had been activated, deployed and returned home within one week of each other. |
One Marine, Lance Cpl. Steven Rogers II, exited the bus and immediately saluted his father, Reserve Navy Lt. Cmdr. Steven Rogers, a detective sergeant supervisor with the Nutley Police Department in the Juvenile Bureau. Both father and son had been activated, deployed and came home within a week of each other.
Diane Johnson of the Fire Support Armaments center, matrixed to the Joint Program Management Officer for the Lightweight Howitzer, also welcomed home her son, Lance Cpl. Joseph Johnson, 23.
He had joined the Marines in August 2000 after graduating Hackettstown High School and was activated both times also. He is a student at Fairleigh Dickinson University studying political science. He hopes to become a state trooper.
His mom said because she works in a joint office with soldiers and Marines, she received advice from her colleagues and also had the advantage of knowing the Arsenal.
She said this helped keep her calmer too.
"I wasn't too nervous about him being in Iraq because the "key volunteers" in the Reserve Center kept us well informed and I received letters from my son informing me that the Iraqi people were not hostile to them," she said. "Plus I think I was in denial."
"I was very excited to see him when they all arrived," she said. "I'm so proud of him."
This was not the first call up for these reservists, many of whom are college students, policemen and firemen. Nearly all were activated to fight terrorism in Afghanistan. They returned home in December only to be called up again three months later.
"Two deployments are unheard of in Marine history," Lanza told the crowd. "But these men performed better than anybody could ask for."
The Marines saw combat and participated in peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations in Nasiriyah.
Two reservists, Cpl. John F. Tacopino, Jr., 24, of Freehold and Lance Cpl. Forrest Samalonis, 23, of Shamong Township received Combat Meritorious Medals and promoted.
Lanza said all the Marines conveyed to the Iraqi civilians a Marine motto, "No better friend, no worse enemy."
"We were firm, but we were fair," he said.
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