Parents wait for news from the frontlines

Barbara Diamond

Times have changed in the Slattery family home in South Laguna. Dad’s

here, but son Ethan has shipped out.

“It’s very strange,” said Tom Slattery, who served in the Merchant

Marine for 33 years. “I am at home watching Fox News, and he is out

in front of the front lines.”

The 19-year-old Laguna Beach High School graduate is a lance

corporal in a U.S. Marine reconnaissance detail.

“We haven’t talked to him since he left in January,” Tom Slattery

said.

The family did hear from him by e-mail while he made the trip to

the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Anchorage, which sailed in a

seven-ship armada from San Diego.

“He stood in a long line every other day to get to use a computer

while he was aboard the ship,” Tom Slattery said.”

The voyage took about a month to get to Kuwait because of some

on-ship training.

Since then, the Slatterys have had three letters from Ethan. The

last onearrived Monday. It was postmarked March 19.

Ethan Slattery’s mother, Katie, said she and her daughter, Erin,

are hanging in there.

“We were used to Tom going away,” she said. “The thing that’s

difficult for me -- other than the fact that Ethan is there -- is

that he wrote that he had gotten mail from middle school children in

Oceanside, Modesto, Redondo Beach and Coronado, but nothing from

anyone he knows.

“Of course, now he is out there finding out where the enemy is and

he is supposed to be hidden so mail delivery may not be easy,” she

said.

Katie Slattery, a Girl Scout leader and adult advisor for almost

20 years, has boxes of cookies stashed, waiting for the glut of

patriotic mail from strangers to ease before she sends off a care

package.

In the meantime, while dad is watching TV, mom is on the Internet.

“I am not normally a chat room kind of person, but Ethan told us

to go to the Marine Corps Web site for information,” she said.

The site has a forum-type link, marinemoms.com, which she checks

every night.

“I actually found a mother whose son looks like he is in the same

unit and in the same situation -- a newcomer -- as Ethan and they

sailed on the same ship.” Katie Slattery said.

Ethan, who was born Aug. 14, 1983, at South Coast Medical Center,

joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating last June from Laguna

Beach High School.

His parents were in Auckland, New Zealand, on their way home from

a five-week trip in Australia, when the war began.

“We were laid over in Auckland when CNN broke the news,” Tom

Slattery said. “I’ve always been a news junkie, but now I am watching

more than ever.”

* BARBARA DIAMOND is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.