Marine battalion heads to Iraq for fourth time

Sometimes, there are just no words.

In a parking lot baked by the desert sun, a young Marine stands in line waiting to get on a bus. A young woman walks with him. They hold hands. They stare intently into each other's eyes, trying to communicate something that cannot be said. Her hand grips his arm, her knuckles white. Finally, they reach the door. He gives her one last kiss.

It's a long kiss, but the men behind him say nothing. They are not in a hurry. The bus, painted white with no markings, will take the young lover and his buddies to an Air Force base. They will board a passenger jet and make their way to Kuwait. And then, Iraq.

It's a scene played out regularly at the world's largest Marine base, on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert. The war in Iraq has been going on for less than four years, but this is the fourth time these Marines -- members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment -- will be deployed there.

"This is the second time we've gone through this," said Jaime Pater, 28, the wife of a Marine warrant officer. "It doesn't get any easier."

Pater is pregnant with the couple's second child, due in October. Her husband, Frank, will miss the birth.

Read the rest at the San Francisco Chronicle

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