Austin Bay Blog

I’m blogging this very quickly, having just returned home (and begun the process of running through 300 emails).

That noted– here’s a news story you may have missed. If someone has a link to a press story reporting this event, please send it.

If you?ve read my last post (March 30) you?ll know this week III Corps held an ?off-site? staff conference in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was a chance to discuss and dissect staff operations and planning. (Several Army Reservists attended, all Iraq vets. I was the only retired reservist, but I got an invite since I served with the Corps in Iraq. The Omni Marina-Towers hosted the conference.)

Early afternoon March 31 ? Corps Chief of Staff Brigadier-General William Troy was in the middle of an hour-long briefing on what he thought were a few of the more important III Corps operational lessons learned. (BG Troy was my boss in Iraq.). I think we were discussing Corps pre-deployment preparation. (This may sound dry or esoteric but it entails preparing then shipping 70.000 to 100,000 troops from the US to Iraq. And don?t forget their equipment.) As BG Troy was responding to a question, a young officer walked into the hotel ballroom and announced that a US Marine Reserve company was returning to its home base in Corpus after a seven month-tour in Iraq. But this was a Red Alert/Quick Reaction kind of moment– the company was aboard buses heading for downtown Corpus. They would pass right by the hotel.

I?m not sure that anybody actually said ?Let?s go,? but BG Troy and LTG Tom Metz (III Corps commander) and the rest of the senior staff (brigadiers, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, sergeant-majors, and master sergeants) instantly emptied the seminar room. To appropriate a colloquial phrase: we beat feet.

Traffic cops and a slew of passersby lined the sidewalk. A Coast Guard helicopter buzzed in from Corpus Christi Bay then banked .

We joined the crowd on the corner of Water Street and Peoples. We may have waited three minutes, at the most. Here came the convoy— a police escort followed by two buses filled with young Marines. We cheered, saluted and clapped as the company rolled by. (I feel certain the company belongs to the 1/23rd Marines. The 1/23rd is a Marine reserve battalion just back from Iraq?and I have friends in Central Texas whose sons serve in that unit. If I?ve got the Corpus Christi unit misidentified, post a comment or drop me an email and I?ll correct it.)

Most of us old codgers wore short-sleeves and slacks, so it?s a fair bet the Marine reservists didn?t know their former Corps commander and his senior staff were cheering with the home crowd. (Probable wisecrack if someone informed a lance corporal: ?Hey, sarge?are those the guys responsible for all the dumb orders you didn’t like??)

Actually, the Marines were smiling and waving?the one memorable face I saw framed in the bus window as it shot past was that of a delighted but obviously tired young man.

Jet lag or Iraq lag? Or lag from a week at the 29 Palms Marine base? Doesn?t really matter now– welcome home.

UPDATE: A commenter adds this link to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

The article identifies the unit:

…Company C, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment who returned home to their families Thursday after spending seven months in Iraq. The troops returned to the United States March 22. ..

…The Marines arrived at Corpus Christi International Airport at 1 p.m. From there, their buses paraded them along Ocean Drive, where they were greeted by hundreds of people. They went on to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi where they were reunited with their families.