Marine's work is never done, even when he returns home

Marine Cpl. Robert Connell went right from one tour of duty to another – and he didn’t mind one bit.

Connell, 26, was reunited with his family and two young daughters Friday at Cherry Point after a 10-month deployment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Shortly after hugs and kisses, he was changing a diaper.

“As long as I don’t have to change (rifle) magazines anymore, I’m good,” he said. “Diapers over magazines, Yeah. As long as no one’s shooting at me. Yeah, I think I’m good.”

Connell said he was ecstatic and overwhelmed to return home to his family.

“You can’t really describe it with words,” he said. “I just want to grab my bags and spend time with my family and pray to God not to go back on a ship anytime soon.”

A food service specialist with Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, Connell said his best meal was Christmas because he didn’t have to cook it.

His wife, Jennifer Connell, stayed home through the deployment with their daughters Lyla, 2, and Cora, 1.

“She was about 8 weeks old when he left, and she’s just turned one,” she said. “He made videos of himself reading stories to her so now she knows his face and his voice, so we’re pretty excited for her to see him in person.

“He recorded himself reading about a dozen different stories and recorded himself saying good morning and good night and messages for every holiday and for their birthdays so pretty much every day they’ve had a little message from him for almost the past year. Lyla calls them her Daddy movies and she likes to watch them.

“It was really great at first because our older daughter is a huge daddy’s girl and she had a really hard time with him being gone, and then as Cora got older it was really great to have a way for her to get to know his face and his voice, and even if it was just a one way interaction, it was some kind of interaction with him. I think that it has been a big help. We’re glad that we had them.”

Cpl. Connell was also on the receiving end of videos so he could see his children walk, crawl and even throw temper tantrums.

“It helped out when it came to emails and talking to them on the phone, even though she kept hanging up on me,” he said. “But that’s alright. She doesn’t know what the button goes for.”

He said communication was the key to getting through the deployment.

“Keep in touch. Always stay on a good level playing field with each other. No fighting,” he said. “Anything that comes up major, work through it. Don’t leave any loose ends.”

The last communication came just hours before he arrived home.

“He called me about 11:30 last night and asked me why I wasn’t sleeping. I haven’t slept in days I’m just so excited for him to be home,” Jennifer Connell said. “I’m excited for my girls to be with him again. I’m very, very proud of him. He’s a good man and he’s a good Marine and he tries really hard to do his best and he works really hard. He’s just been really dedicated to doing what he needs to do.

“The thing that he said to me before he left was just to remember that him leaving means that somebody else’s husband got to come home to their wife and kids and that’s really the kind of person that he is. I’m just really, really proud of him.”

Maj. Tim Brady, of Marine Air Control Group 28, said Marines have to keep the picture in mind.

“We signed up knowing what we’re going to get ourselves into so these are the sacrifices that we have to make being away from family, but we do it for the greater good and hopefully in the end, we get home and it’s a reunion just like this,” he said as he cradled a new baby boy, Timmy, 6 months old, for the first time. “We’re back finally after 10 long months. It’s been a long deployment. I think everyone’s glad to be home. I’m glad to be home. I’ve got a new addition to my family, so I’m glad to see him, the rest of family and my beautiful wife.”

Many who turned out Friday to welcome the 130 Marines were proud parents.

Joseph Shamay, of Beaufort, father of Lance Cpl. Stephen Shamay, said it was thrilling.

“Now I know what it was like for my parents to wait for me to come home. I’m just happy as all get out that he’s doing this,” said Shamay, who spent 24 years in the Marine Corps and went on multiple deployments.

“I’ve been deployed many times. I just never knew how much it felt seeing the kids come home after being gone so long. It was really thrilling to see him go. It broke my heart, but I’m even more proud having him come home after doing such a good job over there. I love him and I’m proud of him. He’s my everything. Nothing in the world was going to hold me from seeing him come home.”

Rich Gilbert, of Boston, father of Cpl. Patrick Gilbert, 21, said his son was on his first deployment.

“We didn’t know what to expect, or how many times we’d hear from him and what not,” he said. “It was good. It was a very proud moment. He would call once in a while. He was the honor grad of Parris Island so when he came out in his blues we were like, wow.

So it’s been very emotional. He’s always been a good kid anyway. He just made corporal on the ship. He’s only been in two years he’s doing well.”

Kathy Anglada, of New Bern, mother of Gunnery Sgt. Jason Shumake, 37, came with Shumake’s young children.

“This is his second time over there. It’s kind of scary waiting for him to come home but God bless him. God bless them all,” Anglada said. “That’s what we needed to do at the time and he was willing to do it, so I said ‘OK, go for it.’ It’s made such a man out of him, the Marine Corps has. He’s really just grown up and become a neat guy, a great father.”

More Marines arrive home to Cherry Point Saturday when a detachment of VMGR-262 arrives at the air station after 10 months in and around the Mediterranean.