For Families, Agonizing Waits
Many of the troops serving in Mosul are from Virginia and from the state of Washington. For their families, it has been excruciating to wait to find out if their loved ones are safe.
An image in the Richmond Times-Dispatch of Sgt. Evan Byler, his blood-stained hand clutching a cigarette, brought fiancee Michele Gibson a special gift this Christmas. "I was pretty much hysterical all afternoon until I, at least, saw the picture and saw that he was OK," she tells The Early Show national correspondent Thalia Assuras.
The couple became engaged this summer. Byler is a member of the 276th Engineer Battalion, based at Richmond, Va.
Byler survived the mess tent attack. But there's the awful knowledge that others didn't. "I feel very bad for the families that lost whoever they lost," Gibson says, "but I feel thankful that he's OK."
Patricia Otto's husband, Lt. Shawn Otto, is also in the 276th. He called to let her know he is fine. Still, "knowing that other people were hurt, and some were lost, was just killing me inside. I had a really rough day," she told The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syer.
"Knowing he's safe makes me feel better, but I still feel inside the sadness of the holidays (without him) and mourn for the people who have lost people. And I look forward to him coming home and know that others will not be coming home, and it just kills me inside because I just love every single soldier over there for what they're doing for us," Patricia Otto said from her Richmond, Va. home.
Captain Chris Doss's Christmas stocking hangs from the mantle. He emailed his wife, Melissa, as the attack was under way, with welcome news she hopes others receive, too. "There's other families that know that their soldier's OK. But there's a lot that don't. And I feel guilty that I know and that they don't," she says.
The casualties come from units across the country. In Fort Lewis, Wash., Leslie Swope waits for word of her husband. "It's very hard, but they're over there for a reason. He wouldn't have it any other way," she told Assuras.
In Portland, Maine, Valerie Noble prays for her son. "I'm just hoping to God that it's not him, but saying prayers for the families of the servicemen that are. What else can you do?"
What's making this a lot harder for the families is the military's communication blackout, Assuras notes. Until relatives at home can reach their loved ones in Iraq, they can only hope those loved ones are among the lucky ones.