Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

A priceless gift for an Army dad

When the young father ships out again, he will take memories of his son's birth and his first Father's Day spent with his kids.

By EMILY VASQUEZ
Published June 19, 2005

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
	Army Sgt. Michael Quinones, 21, sits with his daughter, Quianaliss, 2, and newborn son, Michael Jr., at their home in Holiday on Friday. Quinones arrived home on leave from Iraq on June 6, within hours of his son's birth. ""It's a feeling of completeness when you're there watching your son come into the world,'' he said.

HOLIDAY - It took Michael Quinones almost five days to travel home to Holiday from northeast Iraq, where he's serving in the U.S. Army. But he arrived just in time.

Fewer than three hours after he pulled into his driveway on June 6, his son, Michael Jr., was born.

"I can't really explain it," Quinones, 21, said. "It's a feeling of completeness when you're there watching your son come into the world."

A sergeant in the infantry, Quinones wasn't supposed to arrive home from Iraq for another 10 days, but his leave schedule changed at the last minute. He kept it a surprise, praying he'd make it back to Holiday for the birth.

"I'm lucky," he said. "A lot of guys don't get that."

Today, the first Father's Day Michael has been able to spend with his young family, he will try to make as many memories as he can to carry back to Iraq when he returns to duty Wednesday.

Already, he knows he'll take with him that moment when he first held his son and the baby wrapped his tiny hand around one of Quinones' fingers. It's the simple things, he said, like just being able to take his wife, Ivelisse, out to dinner.

In Iraq, those are the sort of things he misses.

"Something happens and you want to tell your wife or your mom about it," he said. "But you can't."

He is able to call each week, e-mail, write letters. But nothing equals being with his family.

Ivelisse, 22, remembers the first time her husband was able to beam his image from Iraq over the Internet using a Web cam. Quianaliss, their 2-year-old daughter, saw Michael's image and started to cry.

"She kept telling him to get out of the computer," Ivelisse said.

But even Quianaliss has adapted. Now she just gets excited to see her father's face on the screen.

In 2002, Quinones enlisted in the Army at age 17 as he was preparing to graduate from Gulf High School. He and Ivelisse, who had lived just around the corner from him for years, had already long been a couple.

That December, after he completed basic training, they got married, and in 2003 Quianaliss was born. Almost immediately, though, he headed for California for field training.

Michael's absence, Ivelisse said, is something she has just had to accept.

"I kind of got used to it. I had no choice but to get used to it," she said.

Sometimes, the fear gets to her. Once, when she saw on her caller ID that she'd missed a call from her husband's base in California, she nearly went crazy when she couldn't get through on the phone right away.

Michael's mother, Mayra Rivere, remembers the scare.

"My heart wanted to come up in my throat," Mayra said.

It turns out, the Army only wanted to update the Quinones' address.

But now that Michael is home on a three-week leave, the TV is off and the fear seems to have washed away - at least for now.

"He bought one of those Pocket Rocket bikes," Mayra said. "I'm out there riding that thing down the block."

The family planned a trip to Orlando last week and a barbecue for Father's Day. For Michael, though, it seems that little matters as long as he's with the kids.

"When they're in his arms, he's just so tender with them," Mayra said. "Even when they're crying, he just rocks them."

But Michael, still the dedicated sergeant, promises he doesn't hesitate to give an order or two when necessary.

"You can't lose that," he said, grinning but acknowledging, too, that he'll soon be back with his unit, patroling an Iraqi city.

"It's going to be hard to leave - that's all that's in my head right now," he said. "I don't know when I'll get to come home again."

He said it's likely that the first few days he's back, he'll find himself looking over his shoulder for Quianaliss, who is always right behind him at home. That's what happened during his first few days in Iraq during his previous deployment.

"You get over that, though," he said.

But what Quinones hopes he never gets over is that feeling he had watching his son's birth.

To remind him, Michael's taking with him the plastic bracelet that hospital staff fastened around his wrist.

"It was a rush of joy," Michael said.

Emily Vasquez can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6232, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. Her e-mail address is evasquez@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 19, 2005, 00:38:17]