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Sunday, January 23, 2005
Soldier returns after 5 months in Iraq
By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN | News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH — Twenty minutes before her grandson was due home, Jeanette Perry abruptly drafted family members and friends from across the street to hang a welcome banner on her garage door.
“I need to get this up right away,” Perry said, explaining that she wanted everything to look just right when Aurroyo McCoy, the grandson she raised as if he was one of her own children, arrived Friday after a five-month tour of duty in Iraq.
McCoy, 28, is a U.S. Navy petty officer first class stationed with Central Command at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where he works in communications. He was shipped to the Central Command center in Baghdad in September, and returned safely to Tampa last week.
Although he didn’t work on what most civilians think of as front lines in the Iraqi battles, McCoy said he worked in areas that came under mortar fire, often several times a day.
“You see people go out every day on missions and they don’t come back. You get a real morbid sense of life and what means a lot to you and what doesn’t,” McCoy said. To cope, McCoy said he focused on his work, which he couldn’t discuss in detail, and tried not to think too far ahead.
Knowing he had family at home, including his 7-year-old daughter, Tacoria Reynolds, also helped him keep going, he said.
“For everybody in that part of the world that’s doing a job, it’s dangerous. There’s so many unknown factors,” McCoy said.
For Perry, it was a worrisome five months that ended only when she heard McCoy’s voice saying he had returned to the United States.
“I was just relieved. Just like God had lifted a burden off me,” Perry said.
The weekend celebration for McCoy, who graduated from New Smyrna Beach High School and attended Bethune-Cookman College for one year before joining the military, was to include longtime friends, the extended family and lots of good, home cooking. Perry planned a Friday night fish fry, Saturday barbecue and large dinner today that could make anyone forget months of chow hall meals.
“A couple more days and they’ll be but a distant memory,” McCoy said.