By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The noise of battle, the glare of bombs bursting over Baghdad and the ceaseless speculation of television's talking heads fill the family rooms of Tristate residents whose sons, daughters, husbands and wives are fighting in Iraq.

There is silent agony amidst the din of battle.

KEEP IN TOUCH

The Enquirer wants to share the stories of the hundreds of Tristate men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces, and their families. If you are willing to share your story, please contact reporter Howard Wilkinson. E-mail: hwilkinson@enquirer.com; telephone: (513) 768-8388; mail: Howard Wilkinson, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202

"I just want to know he is OK, but I know I'm not going to hear anything from him for a while," said Karla Gieske of Fort Mitchell.

Her son, Marine Cpl. Jeff Gieske, is with the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Marine Division, which rushed across the Kuwaiti border into Iraq Thursday afternoon.

Mrs. Gieske sat at her desk at her office job in downtown Cincinnati Thursday with a radio, listening to the latest reports of Marines and Army units plunging across the border.

She knew perfectly well that her son, a 22-year-old Marine sharpshooter, was among those marching alongside an armored column on a dusty road.

"I'm actually better today," she said Thursday. "Monday, when it was all coming to a head, I was so upset I couldn't even come to work. I just sat home and cried all day."

Charlene Bebout knows that her daughter Holly, 22, is somewhere in Kuwait serving as a member of the 478th Combat Engineers Battalion, a U.S. Army Reserve unit based in Fort Thomas.

"All we know is she has been there about a week and a half and that her unit is attached to a Marine unit, but we don't know which one," Mrs. Bebout said. "It's a little scary."

"The uncertainty of not knowing and not being able to hear from her makes it pretty tough," Mrs. Bebout said. "It's bad enough just knowing she is there."

In Erlanger, Ruey and Joy Newsom scanned television broadcasts for mention of Camp Doha, the tent city in northern Kuwait where their son, U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Ruey Newsom Jr., is serving as an intelligence officer.

Early Thursday morning, Mrs. Newsom sent an e-mail to her son "just to make sure he was OK." Minutes later, she received a one-line reply: "Having a busy day, I'm OK."

"That's all I needed to know," Mrs. Newsom said.

In Milford, Brenda Langdon got a message from her daughter, Senior Airman Angie Grimes, 23, serving in Qatar, where the U.S. Central Command is located. It said they would be losing e-mail and phone privileges for a while.

Mrs. Langdon and her husband, Brian, are taking care of Angie's 14-month-old son. Angie's husband, John Grimes, is in the Air Force, headed for Saudi Arabia.

She worries about them. She worries about all the troops.

"They are all so young, you can't help but be scared for them,'' Mrs. Langdon said. "It's an awful thing watching young people go off to war."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com