Isle newlyweds WAILUKU >> Shane Toro and Samantha Fullmer were high school sweethearts on Maui and married this year while stationed as Army soldiers in Colorado.
are serving in Iraq
The husband's mom says
neither knows where the other
is deployed in the war
By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comNow, Shane, 21, a specialist, and Samantha, 20, a private first class, are fighting in Iraq, but neither knows where the other is, the Toro family said.
"I'm very proud of them," Shane's mother Mary Toro said yesterday.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TORO FAMILY
Army Spc. Shane Toro and his wife, Pfc. Samantha Toro, posed for this photograph as they celebrated Samantha's senior prom at Baldwin High School about two years ago.
Toro said she didn't know the location of her son or Samantha in Iraq.
Toro said she received a telephone call Tuesday from Samantha, a helicopter mechanic attached to the 571st Medical Company Air Ambulance, saying she was on the border between Kuwait and Iraq and their unit was going into Iraq in a couple of days.
Toro said when Samantha called, she was unaware that her husband Shane was in Iraq because when they last spoke with each other, he was in the United States and hadn't received his deployment orders.
Toro said she hasn't heard from her son since April 2, when he was leaving for deployment in Iraq as a specialist with the 4th Infantry Division, 3rd Battalion.
She said Shane was relieved when he first heard he was going to Iraq, especially since Samantha had already left in March for her deployment.
"He said, 'As long as I'm in the same country as her, I'm happy,'" Toro said. "It's been a tough couple of months for them."
Toro said her son was uneasy when he heard about Iraqi soldiers pretending to surrender, only to draw American troops into an ambush.
"He said, 'You know, Mom, I don't know who the enemy is. They come up with a white flag. You turn around and they shoot you,'" Toro said.
Toro said her son was a tank driver but switched to the infantry, because he thought he stood a better chance of survival moving quickly as a foot soldier.
Toro said both Shane and Samantha went into the Army to travel and to eventually get enough money to pay for their college education, and they hadn't planned on fighting in a war.
"But you know, it's part of the job," she said.
Toro, who works as a police emergency dispatcher, said she's able to deal with the stress of her job and sending help to those sick and dying.
"But when it's your own, it's unbearable," she said.
"For me now, it's not knowing where they are and how they are doing."
She said she watches the television for hours each day, hoping to find out the location of her son and daughter-in-law.
Toro said she thought she saw Shane once on television at a religious service before the 4th Infantry Division moved into Iraq.
Shane received basic training in Fort Benning, Ga., after graduating from Maui High School in June, 2000.
He returned later that year to escort Samantha to the senior prom.
Toro said the two drifted apart for a time as Samantha finished her schooling at Baldwin High School.
But they renewed their relationship when Samantha joined the Army and got together while stationed at Fort Carson, Colo.
Shane and Samantha were married at a quick civil ceremony in January.
"Shane said, 'Mom, it was just meant to be for me to be with her,'" Toro said.
She said when the two return to Maui, they plan to have another marriage ceremony.
"They're going to get married the real way in the real Hawaiian style," she said. "I'm going to prepare for that ceremony. Hopefully soon, the war will be over, and they can come home."
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