Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080465
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"He came home on Thursday night. We got married on Friday morning. He went back on Monday. It was kind of a quickie wedding," she recalled.
For 2 1/2 years after that, their marriage was weekends and holidays - whenever Dean Smith could slip away from his Marine Corps unit in North Carolina.
In late September, he finally came home to stay. But with a war brewing, his wife figured it wouldn't last.
It didn't.
Monday, Dean Smith got word he has been recalled to active duty. A Marine since 1986, he was subject to recall through 1993.
The Smiths are one of many New River Valley families learning the hard way that war in the Middle East can change lives back home.
Dean Smith had a job at a Dublin factory, and had applied for a job as a police officer in Radford. He was getting to know his wife and two children, Kristin, 3, and Katie, 1. The Smiths were even thinking of moving out of their Blacksburg apartment and into a house.
Now the plans are on hold for an indefinite time.
Dean Smith's mother received his written recall orders Monday. He probably will rejoin his old unit, the Eighth Motor Transport Battalion, which currently is in the Middle East, his wife said.
His reaction?
"I really didn't know what to think at first. I can understand that I have to go back, but I really don't want to leave my family," said Dean Smith, who is a native of Maine. He met his wife in Fairlawn - where he was visiting a Marine Corps friend during leave.
The four-month period since he came home in September is the longest the couple has ever had together, they said.
"We were just starting to get the feel of each other, how to live with each other," his wife said this week. "And now he's being called back."
Kristin Smith had some advice.
"She said to call them up and say he couldn't come," Trish Smith recalled with a smile. "Now's not a good time."
But Trish and Dean Smith are more resigned.
And Trish Smith - whose brother, Dale Mooney, already is in the Middle East with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division - gets angry when she sees people protesting the war.
"I think we should support the troops. My brother's over there now. I'd never protest," she said.
Her husband, for his part, said he never considered trying to avoid the call.
"I wouldn't try to get out of it. I'm trained to go over there," Dean Smith said.
by CNB