When Lauretta Avina read the news about Marine Corps Lance Cpl.
Jeramy Ailes, the 22-year-old from Gilroy who died in Iraq on
Monday, she felt goosebumps break out over her body. It reminded
her of another soldier, her husband Specialist John Avina, who had
been stationed at the center of the fighting for nine months.
Hollister – When Lauretta Avina read the news about Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, the 22-year-old from Gilroy who died in Iraq on Monday, she felt goosebumps break out over her body. It reminded her of another soldier, her husband Specialist John Avina, who had been stationed at the center of the fighting for nine months.
She says her heart went out to the Ailes family and made her feel almost guilty that they were suffering, while her husband was recuperating at a military base in Washington state after an injury and was on his way home.
“It makes it hard to enjoy your happiness,” she said, “I fight with the guilt of my blessing every day.”
Hollister resident Shelly Baldwin, whose son Russell is currently in Iraq, says that what she feels most is frustration because there is nothing she or her friends can do to make the war stop. Baldwin’s family are close friends of the Ailes and her twin sons and Jeramy Ailes had been friends since the age of six. They often went camping and fishing and, as children, participated in Cub Scout events.
“I just feel that it’s a waste of a wonderful young man,” she said. “Young people are dying over there and they shouldn’t be.”
Ailes died Monday on the last day in the battle for Fallujah, a city near Baghdad that has been the theater of some of the worst fighting in the war. He had recently turned 22.
Seeing local names and faces show up on the lists of casualties of the war in Iraq makes it more real, but doesn’t increase the importance, said Mark Clifford, whose son Zachary was stationed in Camp Anaconda, Iraq for 11 months.
“It doesn’t matter if they are from Hollister or from somewhere else in the country,” he said. “Our people are being killed and that’s devastating.”
Chris Baldwin, 21, Shelly’s son and Jeramy Ailes’s friend for years says he has followed the war by reading newspapers and knew of the 1,217 soldiers on the growing list of casualties. But it wasn’t until Jeramy’s death earlier this week that the weight of it all it sunk in.
“It had always been just a number until now,” he said. “Now I realize it is a number of people like me who aren’t around anymore. It just scares the s––t out of me.”
While families have divergent feelings about the war, they are all praying for the day when their loved ones return home to them.
“I give thanks to God that my son returned safely home to me,” said Petra Arevalo, whose son Dionicio, 32, was stationed in Abu Ghraib prison during his tour of duty. “But it just makes me ill to my stomach every time I hear news of another casualty. I want it to end really soon.”
Karina Ioffee writes about education for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or ki*****@fr***********.com
