Awaiting a safe return
Published on May 14th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Something didn't feel right to Mary Driscoll as she set the table for Easter Sunday Dinner at her Ledge Street home almost a month ago. The mother of seven had places set for the large Driscoll contingent coming to dine on baked ham and Easter goodies, but she quickly realized what wasn't right or-more to the point-what was missing.
She then went about purposefully setting a chair and place for her second youngest son, Paul, a Marine who has sat down to sand-covered meals in Kuwait and Iraq for the last four months.
Lance Corporal Paul J. Driscoll was deployed from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in mid-January and was in the middle of the April March to Baghdad by United States Armed Forces. Driscoll is operating a Land Surface Vehicle, and told family members "that there will be a lot to talk about" when he returns home from. It's no surprise that Driscoll experienced much during the combat-laden 500 mile trek supporting the infantry as a member of the Marine's Second Division.
"When we got the last letter, he was sitting on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and he was heading north," said Driscoll referring to the former hornet's nest of Baghdad. "So we knew where he was heading."
The young Marine has expressed to his family the warmth and joyous clapping that the Iraqi women and children have shown the US forces The trip has also made the young man come to grips with some hard truths about life outside the relative riches of his home country.
"He's been so overcome by the poverty over there," said Driscoll. "He called his brother Mark a few days ago, and said that he wished he could just adopt all the children and bring them back to the United States."
Before sitting down to talk about her son, Driscoll points out some of the pictures of her son in his Marine dress uniform, and also marvels at a Flag hanging in the window presented to her by the American Legion. The white flag, framed with a red border and a lone star in the center, represents her status as a parent with a child in combat.
"We miss him terribly," said Driscoll. "We've had support from our family and friends, but some moments are better than others."
One moment that helped the Driscoll's was the Support The Troops Rally on the Stoneham Town Common on April 5. The rally reassured the Driscolls about the level of support for their son-and every other son currently in a foreign and sometimes-hostile land.
"It (the rally) took place around the same time as a lot of the protest rallies, and it was such a positive experience for our family and Paul's friends," said Driscoll. "Paul's somebody who would be the first to say that he's fighting to protect the American right to protest...that's just the type of kid he is."
"We asked him if the troops knew how much we're supporting them back home," added Driscoll. "He said that they did, and that he's received all sorts of letters from perfect strangers just wishing him well."
The family support has been just as unwavering since the fateful day when Driscoll made the lifelong decision to enlist as a Marine.
"I teach social justice, so there's certainly a part of me that preaches alternative solutions to war," said Driscoll. "But my brother is a Marine and became president of a Catholic college. I know that God and family are a big part of being a Marine, so I felt really strongly that his choice was the right one."
"I always taught him to love God and country, and that's exactly what he's doing," said Driscoll. "How could I argue with that?"
Driscoll graduated from Malden Catholic High School in 1999, but hinted at his Semper Fi future during his high school days.
"Serving his country is something that he's always expressed an interest in doing," explained Driscoll. "His uncle Pat is a Marine, and he's always looked up to him...It's just something he really wanted to do."
Though Paul dropped hints throughout high school, he dropped all attempts at subtlety in one short exchange in the halls of Malden Catholic.
"I teach religion and social justice at Malden Catholic (where Paul went to high school)," added Driscoll of her fifth child of seven. "We were passing each other in the halls one afternoon, and he just said 'By the way mom the Marine recruiter is coming by the house tonight' and that was pretty much it."
Driscoll's story is all the more amazing because he was hospitalized while in high school for a birth defect in his chest. The defect made it difficult for the wiry Driscoll, an avid runner and track athlete at MC, to breathe and affected his lung capacity.
"It was a serious surgery to correct, and we weren't sure how he would come out of it," said Driscoll of his eight-day stay in the hospital. "I used to always tell him that he runs like the wind, and he asked me after the surgery if he was ever going to run again...it was that serious."
"But I told him not to worry and that he would run like the wind again," added Driscoll with a potent emotional mixture of love and pride. "When we went down to his boot camp graduation on Parris Island, he said 'Mom, I'm running like the wind again."
Driscoll left for basic training in late August 2001, just weeks ahead of a pair of passenger planes crashing into the World Trade Center. Feelings of pride evolved into uneasiness as both Mary and husband Bill knew that combat might be inevitable after September 11.
"That was such a scary time," said Driscoll. "It's difficult to make contact in boot camp anyway, and it was impossible to get through for days after September 11."
Driscoll then spent the year following graduation receiving training for desert combat, Land Surface Vehicle operations and infantry training. He returned to Stoneham at Christmastime for his sister MaryBeth's wedding, and mom knew something wasn't right.
"He was leaving early Christmas morning, it was snowing and he had this funny look on his face," said Driscoll. "I asked him what was wrong and he told me he was fine and that he would call me when he got home."
"Then my son Mark drove him to the airport and Paul told him that he was going to the Middle East very shortly," said Driscoll. "He made Mark tell me because he couldn't tell me."
The Driscolls spent the better part of the next few months hoping that the United Nations and diplomacy would prevail, and the concerned mom became a news junkie.
"CNN, CNBC, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald; I would look at anything I could to give me the latest news," said Driscoll. "I just couldn't enough information."
The news gathering reached a fever pitch when the statues of Saddam Hussein were dismantled and destroyed, and left Mary speechless.
"That was a big day for our family," said Driscoll of the April 10 events. "To think that my son will be a part of something in the history books: it's mind-boggling and makes me very proud."
Driscoll said that she's relieved that fighting has slowed, but she "can't relax until he's home."
According to Driscoll, Paul was interested, prior to the war, in becoming a firefighter or police officer after his term of service ended. Driscoll was deeply affected by September 11, according to his mom, and wants to help those in times of distress.
Any town, Stoneham or otherwise, would be lucky to have the bravery and dedication of a man like Paul Driscoll.
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