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Families Of Military Cope With
PAGE 7 - The Georgia Bulletin, December 20, 1990
Christmas Separation
FAMILY TREASURES - Fran and Paul Gonzales proudly display the
pictures of their two sons serving in Operation Desert Shield. First
Lieutenant Michael Gonzales on the left is with Army Intelligence. Petty
Officer 2nd Class Salvador Gonzales works in the legal office of the
aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy.
BY PAULA DAY
Catholic families in the archdiocese are among many in
the United States who will experience a different Christ
mas this year because they have loved ones serving in
Operation Desert Shield.
Sherry Rudd will be separated from her husband of 30
years for the first time at Christmas. Three members of
“It’s baby Jesus’ birthday, that’s what’s
important. We’ll go to Mass and pray for
peace.’’ - Fran Gonzales
the Gonzales family will be missing from the Christmas
dinner table. Deacon Joseph Anzalone’s family will
continue to find support in their faith and from their parish
community in the absence of their oldest son.
Sherry Rudd had never dreamed of spending the
Christmas holidays separated from her husband, Thad.
“I’m not staying here,” she admitted. “It’s too sad.”
The Rudds have a home in the North Georgia mountains
but she plans to visit her sister in Asheville, N.C., during
the holidays.
Lieutenant Colonel Thad Rudd is a chaplain in the
265th Engineer Group, an Army National Guard unit
whose home base is Dobbins Air Base in Marietta. He left
the states for Saudi Arabia with the unit December 11.
This will be the first Christmas the couple have been
separated.
“I’m not really a military wife,” Mrs. Rudd explained.
“Thad got into the National Guard as an Episcopal priest.
This is his first time in active duty.”
Members of the St. Augustine community of All Saints
parish in Dunwoody, the Rudds entered the Roman
Catholic Church at Easter, 1989. They have a son in the
MARINE CREATIVITY - Corporal Joe
Anzalone designed this card as a seasonal greeting
while assisting in the photo lab on board his ship
the USS Iwo Jima.
Air Force stationed in the Philippines, a married daughter
living in Austell, and another daughter in Nashville.
Chaplain Rudd knew something of what to expect in the
desert. The engineers’ unit has trained in Egypt and Jordan
the past four years. He talked of sand in the eyes, hair,
food, toothpaste. This desert expenence explains why this
particular Guard unit was deployed to Saudi Arabia, Mrs.
Rudd believes. “They can build anything in the desert -
airfields, hospitals, houses,” she explained.
The 265th is a “headquarters” unit and will be in
charge of Egyptian, Syrian, British and French engineering
units. If there is war, they will be among the first to go
into an area, laying fuel pipelines. There is a possibility
they could be used to help rebuild Kuwait, Mrs. Rudd
believes. She doesn’t expect tne unit to return to the states
for six to 12 months.
Chaplain Rudd left Atlanta with videotapes, a VCR,
television set and a Christmas tree, all to help keep up the
morale of the men during
the coming weeks and
months. In addition to
holding services, as a
chaplain he will be sought
out for moral and emotion
al support Mrs. Rudd
attended a prayer service
with the unit before it left
and heard one man say,
“When it comes right
down to it I’m afraid to
die.”
Sherry Rudd works part-
time as a nurse at a
Gainesville hospital and
this will help keep her
busy in the months ahead.
“Hey, this is Christ- 2
mas,” she said. “You’re
not supposed to be think
ing of yourself. There are
so many others in this with
me, I’m not alone. I’m
giving him away for
awhile to help those guys.
He’ll be good with them.”
Getting the Christmas lights up at the Gonzales home
was slower than usual this year. By mid-December they
were still on the floor of the den because Paul Gonzales’
oldest son, Salvador, who always helps him put them up
was half a world away on the aircraft carrier John F.
Kennedy in the Red Sea.
Two other members of the Conyers family will not be
at the Christmas dinner table either. The Gonzales’ second
son, Michael, is in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.
His bride of five months, Wendy, is “somewhere in the
Saudi desert.”
“I don’t like it,” Fran Gonzales said. “I’m down about
it But they’re doing their thing, their job.” Paul Gonzales
admitted he had taken for granted that the two oldest boys
would always be around to help.
“I’m stuck with putting up the lights. I depend on
Salvador and that we’d go out and do it together. Now it’s
just me.”
The Gonzales’ two youngest children, Steven, 13, and
Christy, 12, will also miss their older brothers. Salvador,*
who is 32, takes them shopping or to Six Flags when he
is home. He pitches a tent in the backyard, takes out a
television set, grill and air mattresses and “roughs it”
with them, Mrs. Gonzales said. Twenty-nine-year-old
Michael plays basketball and football with Steven.
Salvador did send Steven a T-shirt with a map of Saudi
Arabia on it which the boy proudly wears to school. When
he has the chance he points out on the map just where his
brothers are.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Salvador Gonzales left Norfolk,
Va. early in August for the Persian Gulf area. “This
Christmas will be the pits,” he admitted recently in a
telephone call from Turkey where he had a few days of
“R&R.”
First Lieutenant Michael Gonzales, with Army Military
Intelligence, left for the desert nation in early fall. He is
executive officer for his platoon. As an enlisted man who
advanced through the ranks he feels he understands what
his men are going through at this time, according to Fran
Gonzales.
“My place right now is with my men,” he told his
mother.
Michael’s wife, Wendy, is three hours’ distance from
her new husband. The life of this-friilitary couple has been
punctuated by separation. They met while in officers’
basic training in Arizona. She is a lieutenant in the 82nd
Airborne, a rapid deployment unit, and before they could
complete their marriage plans she was sent to Korea and
returned last April. They were married in July and she left
for Saudi Arabia in early August.
Two older daughters, Lupe, 28, and Diana, 27, complete
the Gonzales family. Traditionally they have all gone to
midnight Mass on Christmas and then come home to a
meal of homemade tamales and present opening. When the
question of having a Christmas tree this year came up,
Lupe insisted, “Oh Mom, we’ve got to have a tree. This
will be Joseph’s first Christmas.’ ’ Seven-month-old Joseph
is the Gonzales’ first grandchild.
Christmas will be different this year, Fran Gonzaie?
concluded. '‘Thanksgiving was already different, so quiet.
We will go to midnight Mass. It’s baby Jesus’ birthday,
that’s what’s important We’ll go to Mass and pray for
peace.”
The Gonzales are members of St. Pius X parish in
Conyers. Shortly after the deployment of troops to Saudi
Arabia a poster with names of those serving in the
military from the parish was put in the church’s vestibule
with a request for prayers.
This won’t be the first Christmas Corporal Joe Anza
lone, Jr., will spend away from home. The Marine son of
Deacon Joseph C. and Judy Anzalone of St Philip Benizi
parish spent one Christmas in the Philippines. But it will
be a different Christmas nevertheless.
On board the USS Iwo Jima based at the port of
Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, Corporal Anzalone “has a lot
of idle time waiting for something to happen,” his mother
said. A member of a Marine support group that maintains
vehicles, the younger Anzalone will “go wherever the
equipment goes” in case of military action.
Ironically, Corporal Anzalone was to have been dis
charged September 16. His duty was extended for three
months, and now he is told it will be “some time after
March” before he will become an ex-Marine.
“He accepts this as his job, where he needs to be,”
said his mother. “He calls us whenever he’s in port.”
The Anzalbnes are grateful for the support of the St.
Philip Benizi parish community during this time. Since
mid-September the parish has listed the names and
addresses of its men and women serving with Desert
Shield. An estimated 20 to 25 families have a husband,
son or daughter in the Persian Gulf area. Once a month
these families and other parishioners are invited to a Mass
or prayer service during which each individual is prayed
for by name.
Members of various parish groups write to the service
men and women. Receiving letters from his home parish
has been a great support for Corporal Anzalone, according
to his father.
During the holiday season St. Philip parishioners also
have donated gifts to be sent to the troops in Saudi
Arabia. The list of articles suggested by officials at nearby
Fort Gillem included pre-sweetened powdered drinks,
stationery, cookies, games, and model kits. Fort Gillem
will handle the transportation of the gifts, according to
Helen Rickman, organizer of the effort
Coupled with the support of their parish community is
the Anzalone family’s deep faith.
“We’ve placed him in God’s hands,” Deacon Anzalone
said. “But even after we’ve done that, it doesn’t mean we
don’t think about it. You have to remind yourself, ‘I put
him in God’s hands and I leave him there.’” He says his
son is a “pretty strong person, emotionally and spiritual
ly-”
The Anzalone family has been spiritually strengthened
and are “pulling closer together” as a result of this
separation, Judy Anzalone believes. An older married
daughter, Katrina Reynolds, college student Marianna and
13-year-old Michael will be with their parents for a
“Christmas that won’t be nearly as happy,” Joseph
Anzalone, Sr., poignantly said.