gone for one year,” Mr. Roland said. Not only

gone for one year,” Mr. Roland said.

Not only has his departure date been moved once, but twice and now a third time. The family doesn’t expect him home until summer.

“He was supposed to arrive on March 21 but that also has fallen through,” his father said with some disgust, adding that not only does he anxiously await his son’s arrival to base in Jacksonville, N.C., but his son, Tommy Roland of Rappahannock, and his daughter-in-law, with the solider’s first child, a daughter, four months old, are also waiting. “He’s not seen her except in pictures,” the proud grandfather said of his son’s child, adding his son joking says at the rate he is arriving home, his “daughter may be college age before he does see her.”

Taken from a maneuver in Japan, L.Cpl. Roland joined the 3rd Battalion in the gulf and was the 17th vehicle to cross the boarder into Kuwait as the liberation of country was at hand. “He said he has 11 rolls of film,” Mr. Roland said, adding his son’s partner has 19 rolls of film. “Steve drives the huge thing that tows the tank, called an 88,” he said, The young Marine’s division was the one of the ones “that took Kuwait,” said Mr. Roland.

As with Mrs. Aylor, Mr. Roland said the family knew little of their son’s activity while he was on duty in the gulf. “He couldn’t say much,” Mr. Roland said, adding they “knew the division and they would listen to the news and pray for his safety.”

“We did not speak to him until he returned to Saudia Arabia,” Mr. Roland said, explaining he contacted the family just before air strikes on Iraq began. “Once the ground war started, we did not hear anything, not for those first few days,” he said, adding this was one of the hardest periods. “I just want to get him home,” he said.

“We would write often,” the father said of correspondence with his son, saying a high school class in Connecticut adopted his son and wrote letters often. “That’s one of