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LI soldiers abroad call home

May-10-2004 » Filed Under: Homefront

[Link to Full Article]
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, STAFF WRITER

[...] In Rocky Point, the mother of an Army captain stationed in northern Iraq waited for her Mother's Day greeting.

"I'm kind of hoping he will call this morning," Susan Fyfe said. "That, to me, will be the best Mother's Day present."

Her son, Alex Fyfe, 26, didn't call yesterday, but his mother understood. He's been in Iraq since December and is assigned to serve as a liaison between the Army and local governments near Mosul. As part of the rebuilding effort, he's busy coordinating creation of infrastructure and has even started a soccer program for youth there.

For Fyfe, 56, those things make up for not hearing her son's voice yesterday. She also knows that it's not easy for him to get to a phone.

On Mother's Day, enlisted soldiers with children and spouses usually get priority phone access, he had explained to Fyfe recently.

Alex Fyfe was able to call his parents' cell phone on Friday.

For a few minutes of crackling reception, he wished Fyfe a happy Mother's Day and belated birthday for the one he missed last week.

"He said, 'Hopefully next year, we can be together,'" Fyfe said, recalling one of the few sentences she'd committed to memory.

Fyfe said she is used to being away from her son on special occasions because of the years he spent in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and stationed in Washington state. "But this year is the toughest, obviously, with him being in a war zone," she said. "Things aren't going too well over there."

That was among the worries for another mom as she waited to hear from her son, who is in Baghdad. Susan Vlahakis, of Shoreham, fears that with the scandal over Iraqi prisoner abuse, tensions have increased there.

"You can't help but worry that they're not feeling as welcome as they should be," she said.


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