U.S. soldier reunites with family from Liberia
Published: September 8, 2003
Sharon Conto drapes herself across her husband’s back, pressing her head tightly to his shoulder. She holds on so deeply it nearly hides her broad smile.
She has come through nearly seven years of separation from Joseph Conto and a vicious civil war in her Liberian homeland. She is reluctant to let go even though the two have been reunited for five days.
“It’s like a dream,” said her husband, a private in the U.S. Army who frantically struggled to save Sharon, 26, and his two young children from the fighting. “After seven years, we’ve been trying to make up for everything we’ve missed.”
Conto’s family and sister arrived Thursday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware aboard a military plane following a grueling journey from West Africa.
They’ve joined Conto at his mother’s bright apartment in suburban Washington for a brief rest before the family heads for Fort Hood, Texas, on Wednesday. Conto, 31, serves in the 8th Engineering Battalion of the 1st Calvary Division.
The Contos are in the process of putting back together a family held together for years by the hope of reunion and thousands of dollars worth of international phone calls.
“Since they’ve been to America, I have felt like a family again,” Joseph said.
For Joseph, it’s also a time to get to know the 5-year-old daughter he never met before he left his home of Monrovia for the United States in 1997. He left his pregnant wife on her birthday with plans to send for his family later.
But years of civil war in Liberia and immigration problems stretched out their separation.
In 2002, Joseph joined the Army in North Carolina. He had admired U.S. soldiers ever since he had seen some troops posted in Monrovia during the Cold War. He also felt only his adopted country could solve problems in the world like the fighting that was fracturing the home he left behind.
The war between government and rebel forces in Liberia killed more than 1,000 civilians since June, many caught in the crossfire or hit by errant mortars or shells. Rebels whose ranks were filled with child soldiers fought irregular government troops throughout the capital of Monrovia.
The warring was quelled only when President Charles Taylor left Aug. 11 and West African peacekeepers, backed by a contingent of U.S. Marines, moved in. However, there are still reports of fighting outside Monrovia.
“Everyone was terrible, both sides were terrible,” said Sabina Saye, 27, Joseph’s sister who fled with his wife and children.
A mortar exploded outside the home of Conto’s father in July, killing him and knocking Sharon unconscious. In the melee that followed, daughter Leemu disappeared.
“Everyone was confused,” Sharon said. “I was traumatized. She just slipped away and I couldn’t find her.”
Leemu wears the hollow stare of a child who has seen too much horror for someone who is just five years old. Somehow, she walked for three days to a displaced persons camp, where her mother tracked her down a week later with the help of the Red Cross. Meanwhile, rebel soldiers buried Conto’s father in a mass grave.
While Leemu was missing, Joseph was in a constant panic. He couldn’t sleep and had a hard time keeping up the steadfast demeanor required of a soldier.
“I felt hopeless and I felt helpless,” he said. “I felt I didn’t have anything at all because my family is everything to me.”
He pleaded with his commanders to be sent with the U.S. forces to Liberia, to no avail. However, his superiors put him in touch with the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, which granted his family tourist visas in late August.
The group boarded a plane in Monrovia earlier this month for the trip that lasted several days and included stops in Senegal and Spain. They left with few possessions, and spent last weekend shopping for clothes.
Conto plans to apply for political asylum for his wife, children (son Michael is 6 years old) and sister. Some relatives of Liberians in the United States have been targeted by government troops who believe they are responsible for American intervention, he said.
His reunion may also be relatively brief - Conto’s unit is tentatively scheduled to go to Iraq in March. The irony of him being the one in the danger zone while his family lives in safety is not lost on his wife, who fears for him.
But Conto said he will be content just knowing that Sharon and the children don’t have to fear for their lives anymore.
“I will feel good when I go because my family is in the United States,” he said. “I won’t have to worry as I did when they were in Liberia.”
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