Bin Laden's Death Hits Home for Some Pass Area Military Families

Pass-area families of young men and women who joined the military after 9/11 have "a lot to be proud of," Beaumont mayor Brian De Forge said Monday, the day after President Obama announced the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

""It's almost numbing, the news, almost like when they found Saddam Hussein," De Forge said in a phone interview. "We put so much time and effort into finding bin Laden that it's hard to believe."

Military families in Banning, Beaumont and Cabazon have special reason to feel proud today, De Forge said.

"My own nephew, he signed up and served three tours in Iraq," De Forge said. "The young people who volunteered right after 9/11, they really showed the fortitude of the American people."

De Forge's nephew, Marine Sgt. John Wayne Gregory, is 26 now, De Forge said.

"He wanted to go to Afghanistan, too, but he's having trouble with a knee now. But military families in the Pass have a lot to be proud of today."

Assemblyman Paul Cook, who represents the Pass and the 65th District, is a retired Marine colonel and veteran of the Vietnam War.

"The best scenario for us is this might ease the war on terrorism," Cook said Monday in a phone interview. "This might reduce deployments for some of our young people. They're doing not just one, but three, four and five deployments, and it's tough on these families.

"We've been hunting for bin Laden for so long in those mountains, and he managed to evade capture for so long, he developed kind of a mystique that fueled the insurgents. This may reduce that now. I don't think we can relax in any way, but after a decade I think it is almost a sense of relief.

"The troops that went into harm's way, they really did a tremendous job going into Pakistan," Cook said. "That's a high-risk operation and they took care of business."