Finally, a patriot is ushered away from an
overmatched group who advocate tyrany.
Posted on 10/26/2003 10:14:48 PM PST by concentric circles
Focused and disciplined, Marines still heard the cheers.
Staff Sgt. Thomas Powell knew what he was in for as he arrived in Oceanside at 8 a.m.
"I was in the Boy Scouts in Fresno and we did a parade," he said. "It's not really something I had planned on again."
Powell would still be in a uniform, but this parade would be decidedly different for the 37-year-old Marine, who on May 30 returned to his home in Vista after spending seven months in Kuwait and Iraq. It would leave him ---- after the mile-long march through tens of thousands of waving, cheering spectators ---- with a lump of pride in his throat and memories of back home that he can carry to other distant missions.
As a data chief with the First Force Service Support Group in Iraq, Powell kept the communications lines open, the e-mails flowing and the networks operational.
On Saturday, Powell and about 10,000 other Marines and sailors were treated like heroes as they marched up Coast Highway in the city's Defenders of Freedom Parade.
"It's just a chance for the community to see us and show their appreciation," he said before the parade. "And it's a chance for us to show them what we're like. It's another type of celebration to honor what we did, I hope. I know I'm proud of what we've accomplished."
The parade started on time at about 10 a.m., although it took an additional 45 minutes for Powell and the other Marines near the back of the parade lineup to take their turn in the march.
Their marching orders, for the moment anyway, were to hurry up and wait on Tremont Street, a parallel street to Coast Highway.
The Marines shifted their weight from foot to foot, chatted among themselves, joked, laughed, stared ahead blankly at a sea of green cammies ... and waited.
As the morning warmed, the battalion staff sergeant advised everyone to take a drink of water so they wouldn't get dehydrated in the parade.
"If you fall out, there's a nice little thermometer we're going to take your temperature with," he yelled. "And it's not going to be how you want it taken."
The Marines were called to attention at 10:25 a.m., and the street grew silent. The sound of a distant snare drum and a chirping bird blended with the growing noise of helicopter blades overhead as the first of the parade's two flyovers approached from the south. On Coast Highway, the crowd cheered as the helicopters flew overhead, but on Tremont Street, the disciplined Marines didn't even tilt a chin up to watch.
"Believe me, I caught them when they were going by at eye level," Powell later said.
A white-haired man stepped out of his Tremont Street house after hearing the commotion from the helicopters and looked surprised to find hundreds of Marines in fatigues assembled just off his front lawn. He stepped back inside without a word.
Finally, at 10:45 a.m., the order came to join the parade: "Forward, march!"
Powell's group turned onto Coast Highway to their first cheers and applause.
The cheers and applause built slowly at first, because the crowd was thin near the first intersection.
"I'm proud of you!" an easily recognized voice yelled toward Powell. His wife, Virginia, waved his way.
"Staff Sgt. Powell, we're proud of you!" friends from the sidelines yelled.
Standing second from the end of the line, Powell had a clear view of the tens of thousands of well-wishers who lined the east side of the street, but his expression never changed, and his chin never dipped or moved to the side.
"It's disciplinary training," he said later after the march ended. "It's what they teach us in boot camp. Keep focused."
Powell said his focus was on "cover and alignment" ---- cover the person marching in front and align with the person on the side. The steps, he admitted, were not always coordinated because it was hard to hear the "Left! Right! Left!" cadence calls over the crowd.
"Thank you!" people yelled as they crossed the first intersection at Wisconsin Avenue. A young woman in a gray sweater put her fingers in her mouth to whistle, while a man next to her yelled, "Thank you, Marine Corps!"
The shadows of Marine helicopters ---- making their second flyover, this time from the north ---- briefly passed over Powell as his group of Marines reached Michigan Avenue, and again the Marines stayed focused and fought the temptation to look up.
Behind them, the horns on the massive military vehicles bellowed ---- the only sounds louder than the nonstop applause from the sidewalks.
"God bless you all!"
"Thank you, Marines!"
One man simply nodded his head in silent approval. Another worked himself into a sweat and a raspy voice by repeatedly yelling, "Thank you! Thank you!"
Walking along the route, Powell heard the spectator noise wax and wane, growing louder at intersections where the crowd bunched up.
At Seagaze Drive, halfway through the route, Powell could hear an announcer broadcasting facts about the Marines who were marching in the parade.
"Let's give these guys a hoo-rah!" he said over the loudspeaker.
"HOO-RAH!" the crowd responded.
Confetti canyons shot red, white and blue rectangles of paper into the air from the sidewalk, and many spectators held up handmade signs of support.
At 11:05 a.m., Powell's group reached Surfrider Way. The Marines turned west, leaving the parade route, then turned left again at a street running along the beach. Their final cheers came from three people sitting in front of their beachfront condominiums.
Reaching the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater ---- the end of the line ---- the Marines were told to return at 12:45 p.m. and then were dismissed.
The parade had passed quickly.
Finally able to talk again, Powell said that despite his expressionless look and straight-ahead focus, he heard and saw everything along the route.
"This doesn't happen every day," Powell said, adding that he hoped the younger Marines appreciated the parade and what it meant.
Powell said he got chills at the pride he felt, and while he couldn't wave back to the crowd, he said he certainly wasn't ignoring anybody.
"They were all in our hearts and minds," he said.
Finally, a patriot is ushered away from an
overmatched group who advocate tyrany.
I've got the chills right now, and more than a few tears streaming down my face.
Thank God for our brave service men and women! I hope they all know that they are always in the hearts and minds of patriotic Americans.
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