Wounded trooper says toughest job single fatherhood
“In the beginning, I said, ‘I don’t think I can do this,'” the 38-year-old Marine reservist told The Daily Times of Maryville. “I even thought about volunteering to go back to Iraq.”
Yet Marion has learned to cope since his wife of eight years left him in May and he became the only caregiver for Bradley, 8; Bryson, 2, and 13-month-old twin daughters, Madison and McKenzie.
“A lot of people helped out right after they found out she left, but I had started managing things on my own,” he said. “I found a really good sitter (and) my parents in Charlotte (N.C.) help all they can.
“Now, we’re very happy, although I get lonely at times for another adult to talk to, for some backup here at home,” Marion said. “I’ll tell you this, I wouldn’t trade my kids or this life for anything.”
Marion was injured Aug. 21, 2004, when his Humvee hit a land mine while his Marine reserve unit was escorting a convoy in northwestern Iraq.
“The right front tire hit it, there was a loud boom and all five of us in the Humvee were left unconscious,” said Marion, a staff sergeant in Lima Co., 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment based in Johnson City.
The Humvee’s 400-pound doors were blown open and the vehicle was thrown into the air. When the Humvee hit the ground, its tires gone but the motor still running, it dragged Marion 60 to 70 feet before he dropped to the ground.
“Everything went black, then I woke up and realized I’d lost my weapons. I was waiting for small arms fire but it never came,” Marion said.
Others in the convoy couldn’t find him. “I couldn’t stand up but I called in my own med-evac. We stripped and burned what was left of the Humvee before moving out,” Marion said.
The worst of his injuries was a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. He was treated in Iraq until his unit came home in October 2004.
As soon as he was able, Marion returned to his job with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. A full-time Marine for 10 years and later a corrections officer at Brushy Mountain prison, Marion has been a trooper since 2000.
Then on Aug. 9, he accidentally shot himself in the leg when holstering his pistol after running down a speeding motorist who had abandoned his car and led officers on a foot chase through a field.
“After 20 years in the military, I’m very safety conscious,” Marion said. “I stepped to the side and was putting my weapon away when the flap on the holster caught the trigger and it went off. I blame myself.”
Doctors removed the bullet that entered Marion’s thigh, traveled down the leg and lodged in the bone behind his knee cap. He’s now well on the road to recovery with plans to return to light duty on Sept. 6 and regular duty by Oct. 3.
Ten days after the shooting, he filed for divorce, convinced his wife wasn’t coming back.
Over the last several months, Marion has tried to keep up his children’s routine, sending the younger children to the sitter and Bradley, a second grader, to school.
He’s learned to cook “something besides chicken nuggets,” tried to comb out the tangles in his daughters’ curls and maintained order in the household.
“I’m sterner sometimes than I want to be but not about everything,” Marion says. “I don’t get upset if one of them occasionally eats a bug or some dirt.”