Edward J. Ellender Jr.
June 17, 2014Lawyer on plea: ‘Damn the Torpedoes’
June 17, 2014
As the crisis in Iraq shape-changes almost hourly and certainly daily, with decision-makers scrambling to respond with policies and actions, for some families in the Bayou Region, it all comes down to worry, hope and prayers.
Although the U.S. military presence dwindled to nearly nil after the 2011 withdrawal by President Barack Obama, workers for civilian companies, many of them, ex-military, remain.
Just a few weeks ago, Maia Basas proudly beamed her graduation from Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre’s police officer standards academy to her husband, Julio, working in Iraq for a contractor.
Last week, she and other loved ones were waiting for word about Julio’s safety and whereabouts, as Sunni insurgent forces too violent to be tolerated by Al Qaeda massacred troops and civilians in northern Iraq, and appeared headed for Baghdad.
“It has been a rough weekend for both of us,” said Maia, who received word that Julio was out of Iraq and safe in neighboring Dubai, where he was awaiting confirmation of a flight back to the United States.
“In Dubai now, out of Iraq and all the crazy up rising. Feeling great to be heading home,” the combat veteran posted on Facebook Saturday.
Meanwhile – although no commitments have been made concerning U.S. involvement, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby confirmed that the amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde was ordered into the Arabian Gulf and, as of Monday, “had completed its transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Its presence in the Gulf adds to that of other U.S. naval ships already there – including the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush – and provides the commander-in-chief additional options to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, should he choose to use them,” Kirby said. “USS Mesa Verde is capable of conducting a variety of quick reaction and crisis response operations. The ship carries a complement of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.”
The ship is part of the USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, which departed Norfolk in February and is operating in the Middle East region on what was termed “a routine deployment to support maritime security operations.”
Additional reports surfaced Monday of brutality attributed to and said to be admitted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an organization intelligence watchers say seeks to place a large portion of the region under a single Caliphate, or religious leadership group.
Tensions mounted in Iraq, which is what has kept Mary Aucoin, who lives in Houma’s Oakshire subdivision, in her words, “glued to the television.”
Her son, 39-year-old Nathan Aucoin Jr., came up through the ranks of the Marine Corps, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer. Most recently, he has been working at the U.S. Embassy in a civilian capacity.
“He signed up when he was 17, put in his time and has just now retired, and now he’s back there,” said Mary Aucoin, who works at a Houma Wal-mart store. “It’s what he knows.”
Nathan Aucoin’s Facebook page indicated that he is still there. And although U.S. officials have made evacuation plans for a number of their staff, there is no indication of what lies in the near future for him.
“Lots of folks asking what is going on and honestly I see and hear all kinds of conflicting things in the media,” states Aucoin’s post, which recommends National Public Radio news updates and information from the British Broadcasting Corporation appear reliable. “Please stop posting crazy pseudo-news articles that send people into a panic. Capable security personnel are here as well as Marines to bolster our defenses. Remember media organizations are in the business of entertainment as much as they are factual information.”
He posted a link to a “Military Times’” article that summarized the embassy situation. It quoted an official as saying that a “substantial majority of the U.S. Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.”
Mary Aucoin said she hopes more folks will keep up with the events.
“It bothers me that a lot of times, a lot of people live their own lives and have their own trials to go through, but sometimes it just seems to me that a lot of people don’t realize or know what’s happening.”
No longer spared the worry she experienced as a Marine mom, Mary Aucoin finds herself reverting to what she told her son when he was serving his country.
“I tell him stay safe say safe don’t be a hero,” she said. “Then he says, ‘Oh mama,’ and then finally he did tell me, ‘I am good at what I do and I know what I have to do, so don’t worry.’”
Demonstrators chant pro-al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as they wave al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 16, 2014. Sunni militants captured a key northern Iraqi town along the highway to Syria early on Monday, compounding the woes of Iraq’s Shiite-led government a week after it lost a vast swath of territory to the insurgents in the country’s north.
