Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Nathan Ball is back home after two combat tours of Afghanistan.
By Patrick Timothy Mullikin / Special to The Malibu Times
Nodding at the worn office chair, U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Nathan Ball, two months back from his second tour of Afghanistan, says, ?I plan to take over this guy?s seat.?
This ?guy? is Nathan?s father, Mark, 61, who is pleased to hear the news.
?This (Mark Ball Farmers Insurance) is a family-type business, and I want somebody to take over,? says a pleased Mark.
But this is all just small talk, really.
Nathan is glad to be home in Malibu, wrapping up his four-year enlistment, and looking forward to attending Moorpark Community College this fall as a business major and as a civilian.
Mark, meanwhile, is ecstatic. His son is back, intact, from a second and final tour of combat.
Semper fi
From Mark?s second-floor Malibu office at 22837 Pacific Coast Highway, Nathan speaks openly about his two tours of duty as a rifleman in the infantry.
He is at once relaxed and reserved, laughing out loud once in a while, but for the most part serious and introspective as he talks about duty, his country, Afghanistan and his fellow marines, some of whom did not return home.
In 2008, with the United States involved in two separate post 9-11 wars, why would a then-18-year-old Malibu High School graduate enlist in the marines?
That was a question Mark and wife, Karin, wondered about and fretted over.
But for Nathan?whose grandfather served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and whose uncle was a U.S. Navy Captain during the Vietnam conflict?there was never any question it would be the marines.
Hearts, minds and the Taliban
I found my sense of direction with the Marine Corps and was able to put myself on a path and follow that path, he says of his decision to enlist in the corps. ?As crappy as the job is, you take a lot of pride in it. You watch the movies, and you see the guys patrolling, and you say, ?I want to be that guy.? Not too many people are going to get to do that, to see the things you see, do the things you do, and form the bonds you form.?
He pauses. ?All of us (recruits) expected it to be like the movies. But it was definitely not anything close to the movies.?
Riflemen, Nathan explains, patrol in squads of 8-10, usually with an interpreter and usually plodding along on foot. Their primary mission in Afghanistan was to clean out an area and look for the Taliban.
?We were also trying to win over hearts and minds. You are supposed to talk to the locals and ask: ?What can we do? What do you need??
It sounds romantic and adventurous, but back in Malibu, Nathan?s family was in the dark about Nathan?s welfare and whereabouts, unaware that on his first patrol the vehicle Nathan was riding in hit an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), blowing off the front end.
The Marine Corps, Mark says, has a strict policy on casualty reports. Death or serious injury means a knock on the door. Anything less goes unreported.
?The marines tell you no news is good news. They also tell you if something (serious) happens you?ll be the first to know.?
IED on his first patrol
Mark, a member of the Optimist Club of Malibu, found out about the IED incident by chance late one night. A fellow Optimist sent an e-mail to the membership at-large: ?Our prayers and thoughts for Nathan and his family. I just learned Nathan was hit by an IED, but he?s OK,? the author wrote in his e-mail.
?OK. I?m freaking out. His first patrol and an IED blows off the front end of his vehicle. I called the (Marine Corps) family readiness officer in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and said, ?I just got an email. What the hell happened??? She said, ?If you didn?t hear it from us then he?s got to be OK.??
Nathan was, in fact, OK. Shaken, but OK.
?That was a rude awakening,? Nathan says of the explosion. ?I was like, ?Whoa! They (the Taliban) are out here.?? This was his first seventh-month tour.
After being stateside for a few months, Nathan volunteered for a second seven-month tour, which proved tougher for his family and for Nathan.
?We were hoping he?d be done with just one tour,? Mark says.
Make it back home
For Nathan, tour two was completely different.
?The rules of engagement were different, and our mission had completely changed,? he says.
Both father and son agree the United States? mission in Afghanistan is a little hazy at this point.
?Afghanistan happened because of 9/11,? Mark says. ?Bin Laden was there, and I fully supported our mission. I still would, if he were still the issue.?
Says Nathan: ?It?s chaos over there. We know we?re leaving eventually, and the Taliban knows that as well. We were there to fight the Taliban.
?That?s what we signed up to do, but at the same time it was our goal to make it back home.?
Lance Cpl. Nathan Ball did both successfully.