Soldier, family reconnect

A phone call from an Army sergeant in Iraq brings relief to family members who yearn for the day he will return safely home.

After three weeks in the desert, any shower, hot or cold, would have been welcomed by Staff Sgt. Michael Deliberti. But this was no ordinary shower.

"Guess where I'm at," Deliberti said excitedly to his wife during a satellite call last week. "I'm in one of Saddam's palaces. It's really cool."

If the shower was sweet, the dip in the pool was even more uplifting. Could there be a better way to celebrate victory over Iraq's dictatorship than a cannonball in the deep end?

A 1990 graduate of Hudson High School, Deliberti is a M1 Abrams tank commander with the Army's 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor, Charlie Company.

His wife, Janine, also attended Hudson High, and they now live with their three children at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The phone call from Iraq lasted only five minutes but it brought relief to Janine, who had last spoken to her husband Feb. 27. In the weeks between, Deliberti's unit had seen some tough battles en route to Baghdad.

"He sounded very good," said Janine Deliberti, who like her husband is 30. "I thought he was going to sound shaken up. But this is his Super Bowl. This is all he's talked about, going for the real thing. It sounds kind of crazy, but that's why he became a tanker."

On the night before he was deployed to Kuwait, Deliberti seemed a bit nervous. "I think he was more concerned about how were were going to be than himself."

The next morning, Jan. 24, he shipped out, making sure to tuck a No. 40 Mike Alstott jersey in his duffel bag. As the Buccaneers headed to their own Super Bowl, Deliberti planned to wear the jersey beneath his camouflage.

"He was so mad he was going to miss the game," Janine Deliberti said, laughing. "He said take care of yourself and don't worry. I told him to keep his head in the tank and keep the hatch closed."

Deliberti's children - Hayley, 61/2, Michael Jr., 5, and Salvatore, 3 - are accustomed to their dad being away. He has been sent on peacekeeping missions to Bosnia and Korea.

Knowing they might see the war on television or hear about it at school, Mrs. Deliberti broached the subject one night.

"Their president is a mean person and we're trying to help their people live like we do," she told Hayley. "We're going to try and get rid of this bad guy."

Purging Saddam Hussein from power might have been easy overall for the U.S. military, but there were tense moments. For Deliberti's unit, it was a battle for the bridge over the Euphrates River earlier this month.

As the Americans secured the area, three cargo trucks arrived and Iraqi soldiers began unloading rifles and grenade launchers, according to an account in the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News. U.S. tanks destroyed the trucks but more Iraqi firepower arrived.

"They just kept coming at us in waves," Capt. Jared Robbins said. The battle lasted 12 hours, with the Americans destroying five tanks, seven armored personnel carriers and killing more than 300 Iraqis.

Back home, in Moon Lake, Deliberti's parents searched television for signs of their son. In the early days of the war, Margie Deliberti, the cafeteria director at Hudson High School, was overcome with worry and even went to the hospital for a night.

Her husband, Sid, a fast talking Brooklyn native who works in the produce department at Publix, also took it hard. On the first night troops began advancing into Iraq, the couple stood before the television, held each other and cried.

They never envisioned their son in the military. He was a handsome but scrawny 140-pounder in high school, working as a cook at Chili's. He continued to work in restaurants for two years after graduating. Then one day he announced he was joining the Marines.

"There was nothing here for him to expand himself and we didn't really have the money for college," Mrs. Deliberti said. Four years later, he transferred to the Army, seeing more room for advancement.

After Deliberti was deployed to Kuwait, he wrote his parents a letter. Written in pencil, it is both a paean to family life and a determined effort to allay his parent's fears.

"Thank you for making me the man I am today," Deliberti writes. "You should have no worries about me. I have a good head on my shoulders and I know what I'm doing.

"So set your mind at ease this soldier is coming home. I would not let the name of Deliberti go dishonored."

His parents still worried. "We knew he would come home but would he be alive?" Mrs. Deliberti recalled thinking, seated at her dining room table, a depiction of the Last Supper on the wall behind her.

Even today they are concerned, given the unrest following Hussein's fall from power. But the passing days provide more assurance.

The Delibertis already have a party planned for their son's arrival. On the menu: meatballs, sausage and peppers, baked ziti, red wine and plenty of Michael's favorite beer, Corona.

- Alex Leary can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is leary@sptimes.com

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