Lance Cpl. Ben Vance turned 21 Wednesday without raising his
first legal pint. That’s because he celebrated his birthday in
Iraq.
At least he was able spend his birthday with dozens of his best
buddies and he didn’t wake up with a hangover the next morning.
Lance Cpl. Ben Vance turned 21 Wednesday without raising his first legal pint. That’s because he celebrated his birthday in Iraq.
At least he was able spend his birthday with dozens of his best buddies and he didn’t wake up with a hangover the next morning.
Despite missing this American rite of passage, he is growing up fast. The infantryman is based near Fallujah, or “the flu” as he calls it, in the 3rd battalion, 4th Marines, or the Lima Company. They have lost three men to the fighting since arriving in February.
“He talks about what that can do to morale,” his mother Michelle said. “He knows that he has a purpose. I think he’s just got a lot deeper look into himself based on the conditions and a lot more appreciation for our country due to where he’s at right now.”
His parents don’t know where in Iraq their son is based. However, they know it’s somewhere near Fallujah because he told them he was searching homes for weapons in the city. He tells them only what he is at “liberty to say,” his mother said. In other words, exactly enough to make them fret.
“I am worried about him over there, but I have complete faith that he will come back safe,” she said.
Vance writes home describing the snapping noise bullets make when they whiz by his head and the different sounds mortars make when they’re coming toward or going away from his unit.
“That was pretty interesting,” his father, Bill, said.
Vance also tells his family about his poor living conditions. At one point, he had to dig a trench in a site that had been used as a dump so he could have a place to sleep. It rained and the trench filled with water.
Weather has been an ongoing problem. Barely a month ago it was freezing at night, so his family sent him hand warmers that he could put in his boots, for which he was grateful. Now, temperatures have shifted to the other extreme, reaching well above 100 degrees.
When his unit was caught in a severe sandstorm, they had an impromptu church service.
“They just set up a table, and they all gathered around it, and that’s how they had church,” his mother said.
Vance has received a tremendous amount of support from his church in Gilroy, South Valley Community Church, as well as hundreds of people from across the United States.
“I’m talking hundreds of people sending care packages,” she said, “to where he had to say to ‘stop, please.’ ”
“Our son literally wrote us and said, ‘will you guys tell everybody we appreciate everything but we’ve got this huge box in the middle of where we’re at, and it’s full of
stuff,’ ” his father said.
His decision to enlist was influenced by his involvement with the California Highway Patrol Explorers, a program for young adults to work side by side with law enforcement. When Vance graduated from Leland High School in 2001 in San Jose., he wasn’t quite sure what career he wanted to pursue. The officers encouraged him to enlist because military experience would look good on his record. His father was relieved by the decision.
“I was really behind him from the standpoint that he was going to do something. It wasn’t just take it easy and going into work at Home Depot,” he said.
After he is out of the service, Vance wants to apply for the San Jose Police Department.
Meanwhile, the Vances look forward to their eldest son’s return. He told them he wants a belated birthday bash in Las Vegas. By then, another birthday may have passed. His parents expect him to be in Iraq for about a year.
The day Vance left, his father hung an American flag on the garage, and it will stay there until he returns. His father and 19-year-old brother Patrick also maintain a flag on a highway overpass in Morgan Hill that has been hanging since Sept. 11.
“Anybody that goes by it, think of our troops when you go by,” his mother said.
