Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Rockport man's heart still holds hope for son

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Saturday, October 14, 2000

Rockport man's heart still holds hope for son

By Deborah Martínez
Caller-Times

Swenchonis

ROCKPORT - Gary G. Swenchonis Sr.'s heart tells him his only son is coming back home from the USS Cole.
   His head, though, is telling him to face a reality that has no heart.
   "I don't want to use the word 'dead' but they should have found him by now," Swenchonis said Friday morning.
   Navy officers had came to his home 15 hours earlier with a message: His 26-year-old son, Gary Swenchonis Jr., was one of the sailors from the USS Cole missing after an apparent terrorist attack in Yemen Thursday.
   "The hope is dwindling some," the father said. "I want to hope for our son, but there's always reality. I mean, that's the only ship out there.
   "We're running a million different scenarios - maybe he was blown over the side into a raft and is alive in the city - but how realistic is that?"
   Gary Swenchonis Sr. and his wife, Deborah, heard from their son Wednesday night via e-mail. Gary was happy, excited about souvenirs he had bought for his family in the Middle East.
   He couldn't wait to develop pictures of the sights he'd seen, his mother said.
   "He was coming home in January," she said.
   Their son had last been home in July.
   The Navy, his parents say, was what he had been looking for.
   After a four-year stint in the Army, Fireman Gary Swenchonis Jr. joined the Navy about two years ago, intent on making it a lifetime commitment.
   "He'd found his niche," says his father, who served as an Army infantryman 22 years ago. "He'd made up his mind. He liked to travel, to see the world."
   Gary graduated from Rockport-Fulton High School in 1994, where he was an athletic trainer.
   He was a quiet, polite young man who got along with his classmates and teachers, said high school principal Wayne Johnson.
   To think that he could be gone hurts the entire community, Johnson said.
   And it hurts the country, Johnson said.
   "He was proud to be in the service, proud of what he did," said Johnson, who visited the sailor's family Friday morning. "He's the kind of guy that makes this country special. He's what it was all about.
   "He is family," Johnson said. "His mom and dad and sister are well loved on this campus."
   Gary Swenchonis Sr. works with the juvenile probation and substance abuse system.
   Deborah Swenchonis is a custodian at Rockport High School.
   His sister, Shalala Swenchonis Wood, is a protective big sister.
   On Friday, it was anger that got her through her grief.
   Anger at the possibility of a terrorist attack. Anger that her brother, two years younger than she, may not come back home.
   "He's my little brother," Wood said.
   "I'm hurt, I'm angry. It was senseless. There was no reason for anybody to be hurt, not just my brother, all of them.
   "The bombing was a cowardly act."
   Gary Swenchonis Sr. says his gut told him his son was missing when he first heard about the bombing on the radio Thursday morning.
   "I prayed all day I was wrong, and so did my wife. Then, at 6 p.m., they came. I was in the driveway and I saw them. The Navy didn't even have to tell me. I knew."
   Navy representatives have told the Swenchonis family their son is merely missing, not even presumed dead, they said.
   Navy officials in media reports say otherwise.
   But the family will wait.
   They say they will spend another sleepless night, as many sleepless nights as it takes, until the Navy confirms their son's fate.
   And the community will hold out the hope for them.
   "We're praying for a miracle," Johnson said. "They do happen."
   His father just wishes he had saved what could be his son's last e-mail.
   "I'd give anything to go back and get that e-mail," he said. "Deleting it was the worst mistake I made. I didn't think this could happen."



Staff writer Deborah Martínez can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail at _martinezd@caller.com

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