Seven-year-old Michael Acosta hasn’t taken off his father’s dog
tags since he put them on last month.
He asked his mother, Isabel, to buy him an Army jacket and
pants
– just like his dad’s.
Seven-year-old Michael Acosta hasn’t taken off his father’s dog tags since he put them on last month.
He asked his mother, Isabel, to buy him an Army jacket and pants – just like his dad’s.
And his second-grade classmates at Ladd Lane School all know Michael’s dad is going to Iraq. He’s going to defend his country.
Miguel Acosta, 48, has spent his entire adult life in the military in one way or another, said his wife, Isabel. After serving in Vietnam from 1973 to 1974 with a medic infantry, he served in the Army Reserves in Panama and Nicaragua as an aviation medic, and during Desert Storm as an aviation medic and mail clerk where he was stationed in Fort Carson, Colo.
He was deployed for Iraq as a safety noncommissioned officer and air medic Monday, Isabel said. He is scheduled to be gone for 545 days.
“He would have been retiring as a staff sergeant this year,” she said. “(When the war began) he said it’s just a matter of time, and his time did come. The first weekend in November he got the phone call.”
Since then Isabel has spent most of her time worrying. Although it’s not the first time Miguel has left to help protect the nation, this time feels more serious because of the attacks on New York and the constant fighting going on in the Middle East.
Seeing what war looks like first hand on our native soil has made it more personal and much more real, she said.
“There is no safe place anywhere you go over there,” she said. “There’s a 50/50 chance, and my kids understand that. Hopefully he’s not in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Miguel works as a manager for waste management in Santa Clara and was also living there before he was deployed, Isabel said.
The couple have been separated for some time but are still legally married, and the separation hasn’t decreased the amount of distress Isabel experiences for Miguel.
“People say, ‘Well, you guys are separated, why are you worrying?'” she said. “But he is the father of my children. They’re going to suffer as it is not seeing him. My God, I would never wish him harm because that would just break my kids’ hearts.”
The departure of their father has been hard on the couple’s three children – Michael, Danielle, 11, and Rachael, 16. (Miguel also has two children from a previous marriage, Natalie, 19, and Andrea, 21, who live in Salinas).
Because they understand the magnitude of the situation, it has been devastating for Isabel to witness their struggles, she said.
Her oldest daughter, Rachael, has taken it especially hard because she knows her father is going to be right in the middle of everything, Isabel said.
“Now more than ever we’re going to pray,” she said. “Every night I say, remember my dad – he’s out there defending us.”
While the family is Catholic, religion and prayer haven’t been especially paramount in their lives.
Part of that came from Miguel seriously questioning God because of his many tours in different wars, Isabel said.
When he first enlisted, his dog tags proclaimed him to be Roman Catholic, but at one point they read no denomination.
“There was a big gap where he didn’t have a religion,” Isabel said. “I think it was because of the military. He did say, ‘How could there be a God if this is happening?'”
When he flew out of Oakland on Monday his dog tags once again read Catholic, and Isabel told her kids they would probably be praying and attending church more often.
“I hope somebody’s watching over him – not just him, but everyone else, too,” she said. “One life is already one too many.”
Miguel’s departure ostensibly comes at a very difficult time, with Christmas only three weeks away. The family was able to spend Thanksgiving together, and will try to celebrate Christmas the same as they would any year, except without Miguel there, Isabel said.
“We just have to keep going,” she said.
One of the hardest things for Miguel’s family is that they won’t be able to communicate with him very often, and they just won’t know where he is or what he’s doing for most of his tour.
The Army told Isabel that e-mail will be the most efficient way to communicate with Miguel, but computers and Internet access aren’t as prevalent in Iraq as they are in the States – a fact that didn’t escape Isabel or her children.
“But we have to believe in something, or else forget it, because then you would panic,” she said. “You have to think that it’s going to be OK.”
For Miguel’s children, a year and a half is a long time to have their father away. It’s a long time for Michael not to be able to play catch or wrestle with his dad.
“He doesn’t realize how long that is, but that’s what he’s going for,” Isabel said. “That’s what he has to look forward to, he says. 2005, when he’s almost a fourth grader.”
