| From Steph 10/18/11:
Curtis M Swenson, he was 1/3 WPNS CO, stationed in Hawaii @ Kbay.He was the turret gunner that day, my son the driver & the convoy commander as his passenger, taking an EOD team down to another IED attack when they hit an IED, they went airborne and upside down. Curtis was loved by all, he kept spirits and moral high among the guys. He said deployment morning to his wife. It's 7 months, we got this. 9 weeks before they were to come home. He was the 5th for the battalion that trip, this time they've only lost 1 and they are all most home. Curtis was a loyal friend/son/brother/husband who will be missed greatly. He had already completed at trip end of 08 to march of 09 to Iraq.
One of the marines wrote that more than 200 marines came out to line the road when they were getting him ready to send him on his final flight home to pay their respects.
Here's where the story many of us were discussing as we were waiting in the hangar,(June 10, 2010) in the late evening/early am for weapons for the mainbodys arrival. Here's what many of us discussed, and someone posted to his fb memorial page.
Curtis has been heavy on my mind, as the calendar rolls forward and this new deployment is fast approaching.
The saying goes….
May the Angels lead you home… OR In the arms of angels your hero shall fly
I believe that is exactly what Curtis did. His body may have been returned 6900 miles, home to Minnesota, on that early April 2010 day, but His loss left 2 families deeply grieving, The entire Swenson family & his fellow Marine Brothers.
I believe his spirit stayed in Afghanistan to watch over the rest of his brothers, including those injured that fateful day and guide them all home, safe and sound. When the Deployment was over and Weapons Company was on that specific plane headed home, Curtis’ spirit caught a ride home too!
The plane they were on left the Transit Center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan made a stop in Germany and then made a stopped in Minnesota? Why Minnesota pf all places? Because Curtis’s home and heart is from Minnesota, with his final mission now complete, he could finally rest easy. He led his marine brothers’ home; they landed in Hawaii in the early morning hours of Jun 11th, to me that was Divine intervention. None of the other flights of the battalion stopped in Minnesota or came that route.
Waiting in the hangar on June 10th/11th Some of us wives and mothers discussed it while waiting for them to arrive, it gave me Goosebumps when someone else mentioned the very same thing I was thinking about this stop, in their journey home to Hawaii.
Rest Easy Marine! You’ve earned it. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten, May your strength, courage and bravery be remembered today and every day because your spirit will live on in your Marine brethren as they prepare for the new challenges ahead.
Update.... Weapons company left April 16, 2011, a month early, where did they go, Hawaii to Minnesota..... all the other companies went Hawaii Alaska Germany manass, or Hawaii, Maine, Germany Manass. Only weapons went through Minnesota, again. This has been a good deployment for Weapons company this time around. |
