By Jeff Lipton
Ortiz is a private first class with the elite 1st Marine Division, which was the first U.S. military force to enter Iraq shortly after the war began last week.
Ortiz, a 2000 graduate of Lawrence High School who has been with the Marines for two years, is a cannoneer who mixes the gunpowder for the large rounds of ammunition before they are fired from the ground cannons. His job is to provide artillery support for the advancing U.S. troops. The cannons have a range of about 30 miles.
Ortiz will celebrate his birthday on the front lines of battle. He turns 21 on Friday, March 28. The day he left for Kuwait, Jan. 27, he called his family.
He told us he loved us, said his mother, Lucy Ortiz. What he said he was most afraid of is that when he got over there he would see his friends die.
The family also recently received a letter from Jose in which he said he received his smallpox shots and that he was practicing driving around in a Hummer, a seven-ton armored truck, to pick up any wounded troops and drive them out of enemy territory for medical treatment.
These days have been stressful for Lucy Ortiz, a manager at First National Bank of Long Island in Lake Success; her husband, Jose, a landscaper, and sons Jesse, 17, a student at Lawrence High School, and Jacob, 13, a Lawrence Middle School student. Jacob has been walking around with a picture of his brother in his notebook, proudly showing it to fellow classmates.
My sons have been keeping me away from the TV set, Mrs. Ortiz said. She said when she comes home from work to her Maple Road home, she quickly turns the TV on, but after 15 minutes she can't watch anymore. I don't turn on the news at work, she said. I will listen to the news in the car and I will listen when I come home, and that is it.
My husband said he's not feeling well, she said. He's got high blood pressure. I'm really worried about him. He's glued to the TV.
Mrs. Ortiz said her greatest fear is that she will get a knock at her door in the middle of the night and see a Marine chaplain standing there with bad news about her son. It's an image she has been trying to shake from her mind, but she's had a hard time doing it.
I am very proud of him and all of the guys and women over there, and I also pray for all of them and their families, she said. The biggest fear I have and I think about it all day is that I will be at home and somebody will come to my door, a chaplain, to tell me that something happened to my son. That's my biggest fear, that my doorbell will ring.
Both she and her husband have had a hard time concentrating on anything but the safety of their son, and not knowing what is going on with Jose has been driving them crazy. But they are confident he has been trained to do his job with great expertise. After joining the Marines, Ortiz completed his basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C., making it through 12 weeks designed to challenge new recruits both physically and mentally. He began his training by running three miles at 5 a.m. and doing calisthenics. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. The young Marine also recently spent some time on a ship not far from Afghanistan.
Lucy Ortiz said she agrees with what President Bush and the coalition forces are doing in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She said a madman like Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein must be removed from power, along with his entire regime.
I agree with what President Bush is doing, she said. We don't really have a choice. I just pray my son is safe and Saddam doesn't use what they say he has biological and chemical weapons.
She is disgusted when she sees anti-war demonstrators on TV, because the troops in battle need all the support they can get from their fellow countrymen. She added that her son, when it comes down to it, is fighting for their right to assemble in order to demonstrate, one of the many freedoms Americans enjoy. They can protest because our troops are doing what they are doing, she said. The protesters should look around and appreciate what they have. They need to support these troops and show that they are proud to be Americans.
Mrs. Ortiz said that for as long as she could remember, her son wanted to be in the military, so he is living out his dream. But she does not see it as a career for him. After he has completed his service with the Marines, she said, he might enroll in art school, since he loves art so much.
But for now, she realizes that Jose must concentrate on the matter at hand, helping to overthrow the Iraqi dictatorship and finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The Ortiz family hopes it is a short war and that their son will be home soon.
His letter to us said he's going to be OK, and I believe him, she said.
