Brook Park, Ohio – Crisp American flags and emotionally worn spirits on Wednesday filled the streets of this working-class town, headquarters of a Marine battalion that this week has lost 19 young men in Iraq.
Families and neighbors waited anxiously to hear the names of the 14 members of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, who were killed Wednesday while on patrol near Hadithah, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad. Military officials said the reservists’ armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
On Monday, five Marines from the same battalion who had been trained as snipers were killed in an ambush near the Syrian border.
“How much more are we expected to give?” asked Nancy Chase, 47, a schoolteacher who came to place flowers and flags at the entrance of the battalion’s headquarters. “We are patriotic people. We love our country. But how many lives are enough?”
Outside the headquarters’ fence, residents created an impromptu memorial. Handwritten notes expressed sorrow, one signed “a grateful American family” and another “an old Vietnam combat vet.”
Nestled in one bouquet was a color photograph of Cpl. Jeffrey A. Boskovitch. The 25-year-old from Seven Hills had planned to apply to the local police department when he returned in October, family members said. He was engaged to be married.
Flags waved at half-staff throughout the town, and many shops displayed “We Support Our Troops” stickers in their windows. The staff at the Amy Joy Donut shop, just a few blocks from the battalion’s headquarters, tucked tiny flags between their baskets of sugar maple and cherry-filled pastries.
The battalion’s estimated 800 members, divided into five companies, deployed to Iraq in March. About a quarter of them train at Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb, according to military officials.
Military service has a long tradition here. It is a popular option in a town where most of the jobs are in manufacturing.
And residents are proud of their service.
Niki Straubhaar said that most Sunday mornings, as she picked up a hose to water her garden, she would peek over the fence and watch the recruits train. Sometimes, she saw members of the Junior ROTC running drills and doing push-ups in uniforms that seemed just a touch too big.
“We all knew it wasn’t a matter of if they’d go, but when,” said Straubhaar, 34, who works at a local credit union. “I knew their faces. Everyone understood the risk. But there’s a difference between understanding the risk and seeing the reality of it in the paper.” Now Straubhaar says she can’t bear to watch local news.
Each report of casualties tests the patience of residents, who say the sacrifice made by their neighbors and loved ones to military campaigns has become too painful. That frustration has been heightened by the deaths this week, and many express a growing fear for those overseas.
Many in Brook Park know someone killed this week in Iraq. Mayor Mark J. Elliott said he spent the morning on the phone with a close friend whose son is stationed in Iraq.
“We are grieving and stunned,” Elliott said. “What else could we feel? These are our people.”
