Knox Marines Prepare for Deployment to Afghanistan

By J.J. Stambaugh
Posted January 2, 2010

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Russell Jones won't be honeymooning with his wife, Joyce, this year. Instead, the newlyweds will spend the next several months separated by thousands of miles as he enters a combat zone in Afghanistan and she prays for him at home.

"You just try to be supportive and stay strong," Joyce Jones said Friday. "It's hard, but you have faith."

Cpl. Jones, 21, was among three dozen Marines from Knoxville's Delta Company of the 4th Combat Engineer Battalion who were preparing to depart by bus for training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., before leaving for a tour in Afghanistan that's expected to begin in March or April.

Jones married Thursday, and Friday's departure from the Naval Reserve Center on Alcoa Highway marked the beginning of his second deployment to a combat zone. His first time was a seven-month tour of Iraq, which challenged his preconceptions of what life in a war zone would be like.

"It wasn't the war I expected," he said. "Contact was light. There were more rumors about things than there were things themselves. But we still did our job."

His parents, the Rev. Jesse Jones and Jacqueline Jones, said they have faith their son will be OK and are proud of what he is doing.

"They are 100 percent sold out for their country and for their mission," Jesse Jones said. "They represent every family from every demographic in America. ... They will succeed in their mission."

"We're praying and leaving them in better hands - God's hands," Jacqueline Jones said. The parents of Lance Cpl. Rufus Ross, a 24-year-old personal trainer and University of Tennessee graduate, also beamed with pride as their son prepared his gear for his first overseas deployment.

"We're very, very proud," said father Chris Ross of Nashville. "There's 234 years of Marine Corps pride getting on these buses tonight."

Lance Cpl. Ross said he joined the reserve unit in college and is "ready to get the job done."

"I felt like I wanted to do something after 9/11," he said. "I'm excited, anxious, nervous, and ready to get started."

Military officials haven't said exactly where the Marines will be stationed or given a specific mission. They expect the deployment to last about six months. The Marines will be deployed to Afghanistan after completing training in California in the spring.

© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.