Poe
Published on: 2004-04-24
Marine from Dunn injured in Fallujah, Iraq
By Amneris Solano
Staff writer
Poe
DUNN - Sgt. Mason Poe joined the Marines not just to follow in his father's and older brother's footsteps, but because he wanted to support his country, family members said Friday. That same desire to serve led him to work as a firefighter in Dunn.
"He did not join (the Marines) because he wanted to pay for school," said Joe Poe, his father. "He did not join because he wanted to get away from home. He did not join because someone talked him into it. He joined to be a Marine."
Sgt. Poe was seriously injured Tuesday.
He was in a group of about six Marines west of Fallujah, Iraq, his father said. The Marines were traveling in a Humvee hit by a roadside bomb. "They were ambushed," Joe Poe said.
Sgt. Poe suffered skull, neck, back and leg fractures and a collapsed lung. He was taken to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad and will be transferred to Germany as soon as the swelling in his brain goes down, his family has been told.
Poe's mother, Marilyn, said the Marine Corps has kept the family informed about his injuries. She said they wait by the phone for updates.
"There isn't too many people that Mason hasn't touched," she said.
Sgt. Poe, a member of the 2nd Marine Division from Camp Lejeune, had been deployed to Iraq for about a month.
He graduated from Triton High School in 1999, where he was a long-distance runner. He served four years as an active-duty Marine, then got out last year and returned to Dunn to work as a firefighter. He was recalled to active duty this year.
"He is very dedicated and takes his job seriously," said Dunn Fire Chief Austin Tew. Before he went overseas, Poe had planned to do a fire safety project involving children in kindergarten through third grade. He would dress as a clown and teach the children about fire safety, Tew said.
He has been a member of the Fire Department since was 16. He joined the department full time June 16.
The marquee in front of the Dunn Fire Department on North Powell Avenue asks passersby to keep Poe in their prayers. Tew said the sign will stay up until Poe comes home.
Joe Poe said the military and firefighting are two of his son's passions. His older brother, Joseph Poe, is a gunnery sergeant in the Marines.
Joe Poe, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, retired after 20 years in the Army. He suffers from Gulf War illness - an unexplained syndrome affecting thousands of combatants in that conflict - and spends much of his time in a wheelchair.
"Both of my sons believe in this country," Joe Poe said. "They believe in fighting for the freedom of others."
Sgt. Poe is the youngest of the couple's four children. He traveled to Asia and the Middle East during his four years in the Marines. He was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team that provided security during the investigation of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole.
"He's a hell of a man," Joe Poe said. "He's a rock."
Staff writer Amneris Solano can be reached at solanoa@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3521.
Copyright 2004 The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
Articles are
posted here as a service, to keep subscribers abreast of News and Views, Pro or
Con on issues of interest to it's readers
and are reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law."
