Hawaii-based Marines in Afghanistan relax after tsunami scare

Photo By 1st Lt. Brian Tuthill | Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Kolls, a 20-year-old machinegunner with Combined Anti-Armor Team 1, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, calls his family from a phone center on Forward Operating Base Geronimo Feb. 28. Marines of 1/3, who are based in Hawaii, learned of a tsunami warning for the island state and many Marines stayed up through the night waiting for news. The warning was eventually cancelled after approximately 10 hours.  

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GERONIMO, AFGHANISTAN

02.28.2010

Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GERONIMO, Helmand province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan — As waves of a tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean toward Hawaii after massive earthquake hit Chile Feb. 28, Oahu-based Marines and sailors of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, waited for word on the fate of families and friends they left behind.

Marines at Forward Operating Base Geronimo and other positions throughout Nawa finally relaxed around 3 a.m. local time, when the "all-clear" sounded in Hawaii after 10 hours of tension.

Due to the time difference, Marines here first heard of the threat in the late evening Feb. 27, as people in Hawaii slept in the early morning hours. With the first waves not expected to hit Hawaii's big island for hours, many went back to their assigned duties or had already turned in for the night.

Marines like Staff Sgt. Curtis L. Holmes, the artillery liaison chief for 1/3 who stood a night watch in the battalion's combat operations center, said they could do little more than scan news websites and wait to call their families as dawn broke in Hawaii.

"It's one thing as a Marine to have your life on the line in a combat zone, but it's another thing to have your loved ones in danger," said Holmes, 29, whose wife of three years lives on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. "Once we knew it was safe, it was like a big sigh of relief for all of us."

As the potentially devastating wave approached, many Marines who were awake called loved ones and friends on satellite phones to get a sense of the evacuations and other events unfolding, trying to gather any news to pass to their units.

"Everyone was trying to get news because if one person finds out everything is safe then we can spread the word," said Holmes, who was on watch with others who are married. "We all turned into a team of investigators trying to find news. One of our corpsman has his family and a house on the big island, so he was the first one who got to call home."

Well after the danger was over in Hawaii, the day began in Afghanistan and most Marines found out about the drama which had unfolded as they slept.

"I called my wife this morning and that's when I found out about this," said Lance Cpl. Keith Arnold, who is attached to 1/3 from 3rd Radio Battalion, another Hawaii-based Marine unit. "My daughter and her were evacuated from base housing in the morning and went to a safe area on base.

"Even if I had been awake for all of this, I don't think it would have worried me much because a lot of tsunami warnings turn out to only be small waves," said Arnold. "Then again, you never really know."

For Holmes, the experience was enlightening, because he said he now better relates to the stress his wife and other military spouses feel during deployments.

"I felt like I was holding my breath the whole time," said Holmes. "It was very frustrating because you want to know everything that's going on, but out here you can only get a small bit of information slowly."

"I don't envy my wife," said Holmes. "How I felt last night is probably how she feels all the time while I'm deployed. It's a scary feeling."

• Date Taken: 02.28.2010
• Date Posted: 03.13.2010 06:26
• Story ID: 46618
• Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE GERONIMO, AF