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Thursday, January 1, 2004
Facility hero visits
By TAMARA PHILLIPS | News-Journal Correspondent
Known as the hero of Bishop´s Glen assisted living facility, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Glen Menas was recently welcomed home from Iraq with a reception in his honor.
The home´s residents had shown their support for the Marine and his battalion by sending them boxes of canned food, personal items, games and cards while stationed in Iraq.
“It was very touching to see what was deposited in the boxes,” activities director Mary Clowes said. “Here, we all felt helpless, yearning to help our soldiers and praying every day for their return.”
Menas, whose mother, Mary Toner, is director of nursing, is one of 1,000 First Marine Division members to receive a Presidential Unit Citation from President George Bush. He also has received the National Defense Medal and a Combat Action Ribbon.
But it was the horrific events of 9/11 that fueled the young man´s passion to serve his country, and he enlisted in the Marines in October 2001.
After graduating from boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., Menas trained as an artillery cannoneer at Fort Sill, Okla. He later joined the Fleet Marine Force as a cannoneer in India Battery Guns Platoon, Third Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, First Marine Division. His duty station is the Marine Air, Ground Training Command Center in 29 Palms, Calif.
Part of the “Shock and Awe” campaign, Menas´s unit deployed to Kuwait on Jan. 27, 2003, providing fire support for the Fifth and Seventh Marine Infantry regiments. Once Baghdad was secured, he became part of a provisional rifle company and assisted with urban combat operations.
After President Bush declared the end of hostilities, the battery provided humanitarian assistance in Baghdad and Diwaniya before returning to patrolling the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dubuque.
Menas returned to America on Oct. 5, the last Marine from his battalion to come home. He will deploy with the Marine Expeditionary Force during the early part of the new year to relieve the Army´s 101st Airborne Division.