The Mother’s Day gifts are still unopened in the Eleele Nani home of Patti Rabago. And they will remain unopened until Thursday, May 29, a day well past Memorial Day, too. Her son, Troy Rabago, sent the presents at least
The Mother’s Day gifts are still unopened in the Eleele Nani home of Patti Rabago.
And they will remain unopened until Thursday, May 29, a day well past Memorial Day, too.
Her son, Troy Rabago, sent the presents at least a month before Mother’s Day, but with explicit instructions for his mom not to open them until he got home.
That’s OK, though, because she already got the only Mother’s Day present she really wanted. And it came early.
It was her son’s safe return from the Persian Gulf, where he helped launch missiles and bombers against Iraq as a U.S. Navy crew member aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
“That’s all I wanted for Mother’s Day,” said Patti Rabago, a pharmacy technician at the MedCenter Pharmacy near Waimea High School.
“It’s a great joy, a great feeling, to have my son home safely. The frustration, the worries are all gone,” she said.
He is scheduled to arrive home Thursday, May 29, given a month’s leave given to all veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom. That’s when the presents can finally be opened.
Patti Rabago did get to spend a few hours with her son when the Lincoln made a brief port call at Pearl Harbor on its way back from the war last month.
Given part of the day for shore leave on Oahu, Troy Rabago went immediately in search of any local food he could get his lips around, his mother recalled.
There was a little time for shopping, and a brief family gathering, with Troy’s brother and his mother’s sister and other relatives who live on Oahu. Then, it was back to the ship.
From Pearl Harbor, the Lincoln headed for San Diego and, eventually, back to its home port of Everett, Wash. All along the way, the crew received heroes’ welcomes.
The commander in chief, Pres. George W. Bush, even dropped in on the Lincoln, when it was in waters off San Diego. There, from the carrier’s massive flight deck, he delivered news that the major fighting in Iraq had ended, with the United States and its allies victorious.
Rabago is a Waimea High School graduate who turned 21 earlier this month. He completes two years in the Navy in September. He is already considering re-enlisting for another three years.
