Oct 9, 2013 5 min read

While local soldiers are preparing to go battle in Iraq, their families are facing the difficult task of watching the war unfold on television.

Television sets were tuned Wednesday night and Thursday to news coverage as the first atacks were launched against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and parents and loved ones of soldiers in the Persian Gulf region watched, worried and prayed.

Nancy and Dennis Soberl of Buffalo Township have a son, U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew Soberl, stationed in Kuwait.

“He has the best training and equipment possible, and he’s told us that. And he’s also told us that he’s doing the job he was trained to do,” Nancy Soberl said.

“My head understands all that, but my heart wants to pick him up and bring him back home.”

The Soberls watched television reports of the air attacks on the suspected headquarters of Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi military leaders in Baghdad from 9:30 p.m. Wednesday until the early hours of Thursday.

“Right now, I’m not doing too bad,” she said at mid-morning Thursday. “But this morning when we woke up, we heard on the news that we had intercepted a Scud missile that was fired at our troops, and the worry began all over again.”

The Soberls were not alone. A family in Lawrence watched and prayed, as did a young mother in Clarksville, along with parents in South Strabane Township, and a mother of a reservist from Holbrook in Greene County.

“To be honest, as I watched on TV, I wondered about all the servicemen and women, if they were all safe,” said Brenda Sullenberger of Clarksville, whose husband, Capt. Arthur G. Sullenberger is there – somewhere – in the desert.

“I was also thinking about all the women left behind with small children, or who are pregnant, or who are ill, and who are all worried about their men. That’s what went through my mind as I watched,” said the mother of three.

This is the third war deployment for her husband, a logistics officer with the U.S. Air National Guard 171st Air Refueling Wing. Sullenberger, whose unit was called up a month ago, also was mobilized for the first Gulf War and also spent seven months on active on duty as a U.N. peacekeeper in Kosovo.

The watching and worrying for Gary and Diane Hartt of Lawrence was interrupted at 12:30 a.m. Thursday by a telephone call from their son, U.S. Army Sgt. John Hartt. He called on a cellular telephone from the Kuwaiti desert.

“We watched the news most of the night,” Gary Hartt said, “and we started watching again at 5 o’clock this morning. He calls us regularly on his cell phone, but he can’t tell us anything about where he is or what he’s doing, so we just make small talk. But we were relieved to hear from him and that he was OK.”

Sgt. Hartt’s mother, Diane, said that watching the first moments of the war unfold helped her get though the experience.

“It was kind of scary seeing it happen live,” she said. “But I have to tell you that I felt tremendously connected with my son because of the technology that allowed me to see it. I realized as I was watching that I can pray for him as it was actually going on instead of waiting who knows how long for news of what was happening. And I have to tell you that I prayed a lot.”

Until the military turned his life upside down about four months ago, Ross Smith of Holbrook was perfectly content attending college and working for Greene County’s human services department. The U.S. Army reservist was called to active duty in December and he shipped out to the Middle East a few weeks ago, according to Smith’s mother Glenda.

“He was ready to go,” she said Thursday. “He never thought he’d go to war, but I really think he believes in the cause. And if he believes in it, well, I guess I do, too.”

Security concerns prevent the family from learning the specifics of Smith’s role in the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Glenda Smith doesn’t know much about what her son is doing for the Army or even where exactly he is stationed, “but I know in my heart that he is OK. We just have to trust in God and take it one day at a time,” she said.

While it takes more than two weeks for letters to make it to the solider, the Smith family embraces that method of communication since it’s the only one available to them.

Mike and Sue Reese, whose 20-year-old son, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicholas Reese, is aboard the USS Iwo Jima somewhere in the Persian Gulf, watched in their home in South Strabane Township and worried his safety and well-being, as well as the 300,000 others deployed in the war zone.

“It’s not so much that we were scared,” Mike Reese said, “but we are very much concerned because of the biological and chemical weapons that might be used in this war.”

The Soberls were at McGuffey High School for a few hours Wednesday, watching the Mr. McGuffey competition in which their daughter, Lindsay, a sophomore, was an escort.

Their other son, Ryan, a senior, was at home with orders from his parents to call on the cell phone if there was any news of the impending action against Iraq.

“As we were getting dressed to go to the school, my husband said that he’d just as soon stay home. He knew that we had to go, but with what was going on over there, or about to go on, it’s hard to go out and have a normal life.”