Families keeping up by watching television
Jane Rich and Deborah Croft are finding it hard to keep their minds and televisions off of the war in Iraq.

Their sons, Lance Cpl. Joey Rich and Pfc. Michael Croft, are among U.S. Marine ground forces that moved into Iraq a week ago.

Reports from CNN journalists embedded with the 2nd Marines in Iraq are allowing Croft and Rich to monitor their sons' movements and the conditions they face.

Croft is with the 3rd Battalion and Rich the 1st Battalion. Both are units from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

"We can't tear ourselves away (from the television), because we would like to be able to see what's going on, but at the same time it drives you crazy," said Croft, whose daughter-in-law Andrea and granddaughter Brianna are living with her and her husband Brian in Marion.

"Michael's battalion has a CNN and an ABC reporter with them, and Art Harris from CNN was on Thursday night on a satellite call saying they were packed up and ready to move into Iraq," Croft said.

The Rich's Crittenden County home looks like that of a typical U.S. military family's with yellow ribbons on the mailbox, house and trees. The television stays tuned to CNN as mom and dad, Jane and Hank Rich, wait for more information about their son's rifle platoon.

"You get addicted," Jane Rich said. "I'm afraid if I don't watch I'll miss seeing a glimpse of him or his unit and I want to know what's going on."

The Crofts have received updates from the wife of Michael's commanding officer at Camp Lejeune.

"She called Saturday and told Andrea they were in Iraq, that she didn't know where but that they hadn't crossed the Euphrates River," Croft explains.

On the heels of that phone call came news reports of an ambush outside An Nasiriyha. While neither family knows precisely where their sons are, news of the attack heightened their emotions.

"We were concerned, because it could include him but we weren't sure," Croft said. "It's nerve-racking - very emotional - but I'm glad we're all together," she said, speaking of her daughter-in-law and granddaughter being close to her in Marion.

The only information the Riches have about their son's whereabouts is what they see on television.

"I'm better off to be at work," Jane Rich said. "If I'm home I'm glued to the TV.

"If I thought, 'Is he eating, is he resting?' It would drive me crazy, so I try not to think about that. When I talk about it, I get knots inside."

Both military moms appreciate the support they're receiving from their churches and members of the community.

"We have huge support at church, I've gotten a lot of phone calls, some from people we hardly know," Croft said.

Rich agrees there is power in prayer and community support.

"I pray a lot, because that's the only thing that will get us through it."

The last letter Rich received from her son was written March 2 while he was in the Kuwaiti desert. She didn't get the letter until March 17, two days before bombing began in Baghdad.
"He said they had one fun day while they were there, they rigged up a tower hoping to pick up a radio station. They wanted to find country music but all they could get was something out of London, so they sat around singing country songs."

Joey Rich, a standout on Crittenden's football team, told his mom in a letter that he and fellow Marines wadded up T-shirts and taped them up to form a makeshift football in the desert.

She is proud of his service and is confident he has been prepared for life on a battlefield.
Joey Rich earned the USMC's Leatherneck award during basic training for being the top rifleman in his graduating class. He was also a state winner in 4-H Shooting Sports competition in high school.

In terms of the ensuing conflict, "He said he would be okay, he was more afraid that something would happen to one of his buddies. Joey is a Christian and prayer will bring him home," said his mother.

WW II POW says Iraqis may be meaner than Germans
The majority of Americans do not fully understand the sacrifice and severity of war says R.C. Hamilton, a Marion native who spent time in a German prison camp during World War II.|

As a POW in 1945, Hamilton remembers that his German captors treated him okay, that is if you consider having a gun pointed at your head "fair treatment."

"I was just glad to be alive," says Hamilton, who is now 76 and still tends to his men's clothing store on the corner of Main and Bellville streets in Marion.

He remembers a German officer pointing a handgun at his head then pulling it away and firing into the air.

"He did that three or four times," Hamilton said.

Despite the scare-tactics, Hamilton says he was treated relatively well during his 14 days of captivity.

"They roughed us up a little, pushed us around. They let us know that we were prisoners and we didn't get much to eat," said Hamilton, who acknowledges that he received medical care for a shrapnel wound to the head that he sustained just before his capture.

German civilians spat on Hamilton and his comrades as they were marched through German towns from the front lines to a prison camp.

He thinks today's soldiers face more harsh treatment at the hands of their Iraqi captors.
"I think these Iraqis would be more dangerous to fool with, even more than the Germans," said Hamilton.

Cultural and religious differences seem to create greater tensions, Hamilton explained.
"These (Iraqis) are a whole lot different. They don't care about life," he said.

While the war in Iraq is in its early stages, Hamilton fears it could be bloodier and more difficult than many realize.

"I'm afraid it's going to be dog eat dog from now on over there. We could lose a whole lot more people unless (Iraqis) just absolutely give up."

He says people in America are going about their daily lives, shopping and carrying on like normal. Meanwhile they're watching the fighting on television and many don't fully realize that every time a bomb falls, people are likely dying.

"Back in World War II, there wasn't as much reporting," says Hamilton, who recalls that the day he was released from the POW camp was the same day that his wife, Louise, received a telegram informing her that he was missing in action. Also, on that same day, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported that he had been liberated from the prison camp.

Information didn't travel like it does today with live TV showing fire fights and soldiers advancing through the desert. There have even been live interviews with wounded American soldiers.

Hamilton says it's hard to believe such reporting doesn't compromise strategy.

"I guess it doesn't because surely our military leaders are smart enough to know," he said.
As for the war itself, Hamilton has mixed emotions. Yet, now that fighting has started, he's solid in his convictions.

"I am behind our troops 100 percent," he said.