A Marine comes home

Deepa Bharath

Victor Bakkila never got to see his youngest daughter read for the

first time.

He missed the day his eldest daughter won four first places in a

swim meet.

The 37-year-old Costa Mesa police detective, also a major in the

U.S. Marine Corps, was busy building schools, building police

stations and training police officers in the Iraqi desert over the

last eight months.

On Tuesday, his daughters Blake, 9, and Baylee, 5, greeted him at

John Wayne Airport with hugs and cries and squeals of “Daddy!”

In that moment, Bakkila realized what he had missed the most over

these months away from home -- his family.

Bakkila got his papers in March. He went to Kuwait and then Iraq

in May, where he was made the operations officer for the Military

Police Battalion based near Nasariyah.

“It was a good overall experience for me,” Bakkila said. “It was a

better overall experience for the Iraqis.”

Contrary to media reports, about 97% of the nation was on the

United States’ side, he said.

“The media made it look like we were getting shot at and blown up

every day,” Bakkila said. “But that’s not what’s happening out

there.”

He and other Marines were lending a hand in building a nation.

“We trained brand new people,” he said. “People who’ve never been

police officers before. We even trained highway police.”

Coming back home “is like a dream,” Bakkila said.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “Everything seems perfect here.”

His wife, Corey, joined her husband in Seattle on Thursday when he

arrived in the United States and flew down with him on Tuesday.

Several family members came to the airport to welcome him.

The mood in the Bakkilas’ Newport Beach home was festive. A bigger

coming-home party is planned on Sunday.

“It’s wonderful to have him back,” Corey Bakkila said. “I’ve

really missed his friendship. I’ve missed not having him here, not

having him walk through that door every night.”

Her daughters have taken their father’s absence very well, she

said.

“They’ve been troupers,” Corey Bakkila said. “They never cried

once.”

Bakkila’s colleagues at the police department were overjoyed to

get an e-mail announcing his return, Costa Mesa police Cpl. Paul

Beckman said.

Beckman is on the department’s SWAT team. Bakkila is part of the

SWAT team’s sniper division.

“A piece of the team was missing,” Beckman said. “We’re absolutely

delighted to have him back.”

Bakkila is looking forward to spending the next week and a half

with his family before he returns to work.

But first things first. Today, he plans to hit the beach.

“I’m going surfing with my friends,” he said. “That’s been long

overdue.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].