Dave and Pat Wyble received gifts from their son and son-in-law after the men returned to the United States from serving in Iraq.
Pat Wyble got a brass spoon from son-in-law Virgil Madeiros. It had a camel on top of the handle and the word "Kuwait" engraved in the bowl. Madeiros also sent her a small rock from Kuwait, on which he wrote "Kuwait" in Sharpie.
Son John Wyble had to be creative. He wasn't able to find a nice collector spoon, so he sent his mother his plastic ration spoon with the word "Iraq" etched into it and filled in with black ink.
"Dave got a cup and a T-shirt," Pat Wyble quipped.
John Wyble is a staff sergeant stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine, Motor Transport Vehicle Repair in northern Iraq. Madeiros was recently discharged from the Marines. He was assigned to supply with 1st Radio Battalion at Camp Commando in Kuwait.
The Wybles' youngest son, Brett, has been in the Marines six years. He plans on re-enlisting in December or January. He is stationed with a base unit in Hawaii and had no chance of being deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. That circumstance may change after re-enlistment.
"You have a lot of sleepless nights until you hear from them," Pat Wyble said of her sons being overseas.
"It's tough. You wonder if they're going to send John to Liberia. There is a tentative order he may go to Okinawa, Japan. Is this a roundabout way of getting him to Liberia?"
Dave Wyble served 20 years in the Marine Corps, including in Vietnam with the 9th Engineer Battalion.
"It's not any easier having been through this," he said. "It has me concerned. The U.S. has become more of a police unit around the world. We're getting spread pretty thin."
Wyble said that with the continued killing of U.S. support troops in Iraq he doesn't think it's worth being there -- to lose anybody.
"We should have gone in and got out. We need to send in peace keepers now, the United Nations.
"We got his sons, now we need to 'bag-dad,'" Wyble said.
Pat Wyble said she'd like to see an end to the conflict so Iraqi children can grow up and be happy.
"We'd both like to see this end," her husband added.