Those left home brave different kind of storm
Kathryn Jones
Issue date: 10/12/05 Section: News
It's Tuesday morning. Lt. Col. Derek Tolman is requested by his commander to leave his home in Draper, Utah. His destination-to help where needed in the heart of Louisiana where Hurricane's Katrina and Rita recently unleashed their destructive powers. Here, he is told, he will be the deputy commander in charge of a task force enlisted for clean-up efforts.
That night at 10:30 p.m. he tells his wife Carolyn.
"I immediately found myself going back to the Iraq mode," said Carolyn, whose husband, a member of the Utah Army National Guard, arrived in Kuwait in 2003 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom remaining in Kuwait and Iraq for a total of about a year and a half.
"I was not upset," Carolyn added. "I didn't cry. I shut my eyes and said, 'ok.'"
The following morning, Wednesday, her husband left at 6 a.m., stopping first in Pennsylvania for a pre-scheduled business trip. And then, on Thursday, it was on to Louisiana.
"When he left I didn't cry, Carolyn said. "I just couldn't let myself go."
Carolyn, who now must care for her five young children alone until her husband's return on Nov. 8, said, "When my husband returned from Iraq, it was hard for me to get back from my unfeeling emotions. I guess this was my way of coping."
This coping mechanism allowed Carolyn to get through months of struggle, but not only that.
"It [was] boring without him," she said, speaking of how alone she felt knowing he was not going to come home at night.
Still, she does not give up. "In spite of my whining, the kids and I will be fine. We are professionals! What's one month when we've done 15?" she said.
On Saturday, Tolman called his wife from Abbeville, which is located east of Port Arthur and west of New Orleans.
'"There are nearby homes still surrounded by water, and it gets worse the farther south you go,' he told me," Carolyn relayed. She said that her husband was speaking of people having to wade across water to return home, explaining that exposed remains were still a part of the cleanup effort.
That night at 10:30 p.m. he tells his wife Carolyn.
"I immediately found myself going back to the Iraq mode," said Carolyn, whose husband, a member of the Utah Army National Guard, arrived in Kuwait in 2003 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom remaining in Kuwait and Iraq for a total of about a year and a half.
"I was not upset," Carolyn added. "I didn't cry. I shut my eyes and said, 'ok.'"
The following morning, Wednesday, her husband left at 6 a.m., stopping first in Pennsylvania for a pre-scheduled business trip. And then, on Thursday, it was on to Louisiana.
"When he left I didn't cry, Carolyn said. "I just couldn't let myself go."
Carolyn, who now must care for her five young children alone until her husband's return on Nov. 8, said, "When my husband returned from Iraq, it was hard for me to get back from my unfeeling emotions. I guess this was my way of coping."
This coping mechanism allowed Carolyn to get through months of struggle, but not only that.
"It [was] boring without him," she said, speaking of how alone she felt knowing he was not going to come home at night.
Still, she does not give up. "In spite of my whining, the kids and I will be fine. We are professionals! What's one month when we've done 15?" she said.
On Saturday, Tolman called his wife from Abbeville, which is located east of Port Arthur and west of New Orleans.
'"There are nearby homes still surrounded by water, and it gets worse the farther south you go,' he told me," Carolyn relayed. She said that her husband was speaking of people having to wade across water to return home, explaining that exposed remains were still a part of the cleanup effort.
