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Deepa Bharath

All Ian Voss can eat these days are bananas and cheese.

The rich red meat that he loved to devour any time of day seems a

little too heavy now. And he can’t sleep on the sheets and pillows on

his bed, because they suddenly seem too soft and cushiony.

After six months in a hostile desert far away, where he ate

tasteless, packaged meals, caught cat naps and sat all day and night

in the iron belly of a tank not much bigger than the loveseat in his

living room, the 20-year-old U.S. Marine lance corporal is easing

back into the life of luxury he happily and willingly left behind.

Voss joined the U.S. Marine Corps as a reserve three months before

Sept. 11, 2001. The Corona del Mar High graduate had always wanted to

serve his country.

“[Sept. 11] and everything that happened just made me want to do

it all the more,” he said. “It’s what I want to do for the rest of my

life.”

Voss was deployed to the Middle East on Jan. 26. He returned home

two weeks ago. Voss plans to reenlist with the Marine Corps.

Displayed in his room at his father’s Eastbluff home now are war

souvenirs Voss brought back. There’s the Iraqi flag that once flew

atop one of Saddam Hussein’s opulent marble palaces. In his wallet

are a couple Iraqi currency notes with Hussein’s picture on them.

“This is a 250-dinar bill,” Voss said. “It was worth $80 before

the war. Now it’s worth nothing.”

He said Iraqi people, who lined the streets and welcomed him and

other Marines into Baghdad, handed the money to them as souvenirs.

“The Iraqis were such nice, friendly people,” he said.

NO EASY ROAD

Voss also shot 36 rolls of film. He took several pictures of

Hussein’s palaces, which had been flattened by missiles.

“That was so good to see,” he said.

Voss was shocked and amazed by the ornate, solid marble

structures.

“They made the White House look like a shack,” he said. “There was

no grass or anything. Just blocks and blocks of pure marble.”

Voss and other Marines in his company took an unguided tour of

Hussein’s sister’s palace. They got to the basement at some point and

saw bottles of Chanel No. 5, silverware, several fur coats and cans

of caviar.

“It was even more unreal when we went into his daughter’s room,”

he said. “There were actually Brittany Spears posters on the walls.

That was weird.”

The road to Baghdad and their victory lap around the

missile-ravaged city did not come easily, Voss said.

Voss’ battalion lost six Marines, including one when a tank in his

company accidentally overturned, killing five Marines.

“One other man was shot,” he said. “He took two rifle rounds in

his chest.”

It’s hard to lose a brother, but they had to move on, Voss said.

“We were in the middle of a war,” he said. “We had to put that

behind us and keep pushing.”

But, he added, that they had memorial services for the fallen

Marines after they got back home.

Being in the war made him think about the smaller things in life,

Voss said.

“They were things I wished I had done before leaving,” he said

with a smile. “Things like riding a boat in Newport Harbor. I left

two days before I got my boating license.”

He will take that test next month.

A CHANGED MAN

Voss said he was touched by his Eastbluff neighbors who sent him

cards and care packages.

“I was surprised,” he said. “We didn’t even know them that well.

And when I came back, I saw all these yellow ribbons. Until now, I

didn’t even know what yellow ribbons stood for.”

His father, Bruce Voss, said having Ian back was “the best

Father’s Day gift any dad could ask for.”

He knows his son wants to join the Marine Corps for life and that

it is going to be hard for him to accept, he said.

“But my dad was a colonel in the Marine Corps, and so was my

uncle,” Bruce Voss said with a laugh. “So I guess it skipped a

generation. This is Ian’s passion.”

He said his son seems a changed man after his return from the

Persian Gulf.

“He’s way more mature,” said the proud dad. “He’s very calm. He

realizes he did the right thing and he believes in what he did. He’s

the only 20-year-old I know who knows what he wants to do with his

life.”

Ian’s mother, Marsha Steinbrenner, who lives in Newport Coast,

said she feels “joy and relief” at his return.

“When we picked him up in the middle of the night at Twentynine

Palms, he just jumped off the bus with a big smile,” she said. “I was

standing there with my little, homemade sign and he just walked up to

me and asked what all the fuss was about. That’s just the kind of

person he is.”

A CLOSE BROTHERHOOD

Voss will go to college and get to ride a boat in Newport Harbor

as soon as he gets his license. He works as a deckhand for the Fun

Zone Boat Co., but he is trying out for a reserve police officer job

at Newport Beach Police Department.

But, in his heart, he is and will always be a Marine, Voss said.

“I want to be the best Marine I can possibly be,” he said.

Marines have a close brotherhood and a connection that’s hard to

describe, Voss said.

“We didn’t have enough food or the best equipment,” he said. “But

we were the first ones in Baghdad. We took Baghdad. When you’re in

that kind of a situation, you have to work as one. And that’s exactly

what the Marines did.”

Voss said he believes in what he fought for.

“I think it was on the radio that I heard a description of

Saddam’s torture chambers and what happened there,” he said. “I’ve

been there and I know what I did was right. The Iraqis needed to be

free.”