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Military
hospital unit members return from Kuwait posting
July 12, 2003
MELISSA
A. CHADWICK
Observer-Dispatch
UTICA -- Two days after Thanksgiving 2002, 150
members of the 865th Combat Support Hospital left for
Camp Doha, Kuwait.
On
Independence Day 2003, 96 members left Kuwait to return
to the United States; 20 others volunteered to stay
in Kuwait to train the newcomers, Maj. Richard Graziano
said.
Among
the 78 members who returned Friday night is Lt. Col.
Joan Marks, 55, the hospital's chief nurse, he said.
Her
family -- son Michael, daughter Mary, sister and brother-in-law,
and close family friend -- greeted Marks in a black
limousine Friday night, Michael Marks said.
"She's
very much the leader in our family," he said. "I
can't tell you how happy I am to have her home."
Lt.
Col. Marks, who lives in Old Forge, will be greeted
by family and friends this weekend in a home decorated
with yellow ribbons, he said.
More
members of the Utica-based Army Reserve unit are expected
to return tonight, Graziano said.
Included
in that group is 1st Lt. Army nurse Dana Alberico, Michael
and Mary Marks' half-sister.
"It
will be great to have them both back," Michael
Marks said.
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