‘Sinner’ Vidania set for Marine reunion
In April 2003, they were among the first reservists to enter Baghdad, barely three weeks after the United States invaded Iraq.
About 80 members of Las Vegas-based Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment plan to reunite this weekend at the Palms.
They were nicknamed The Sinners and The Saints, Las Vegan Luguino “Lu” Lobello explained, “because half of us were from Vegas and the other half from Salt Lake City.”
Radio operator Jesus Vidania, a Sinner, will attend the reunion. He’s one of the Saints and Sinners’ miracle survivors.
Shot in the head, Vidania toppled backwards, and “we thought he was dead,” said Lobello, who attended Durango High School.
Vidania “opened his eyes on a helicopter,” Lobello said. Airlifted to Germany, Vidania was in surgery, Lobello said, when a doctor “threw up his hands and said, ‘I’m not a brain surgeon.’ Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN overheard him and used a Black & Decker drill (to save him).”
“(Vidania) talks to him all the time,” Lobello said.
It was Lobello’s story that got the attention of The New Yorker magazine.
Fox Company had been haunted for years by the deaths of a civilian family during a major firefight April 8, 2003. The family was fleeing by car when it encountered the Marines, who were under heavy fire and thought the car was carrying Iraqi fighters.
The Americans opened fire, killing a father, his son and the baby of an in-law. The mother and daughter survived.
After returning to Las Vegas, Lobello scoured the Internet for any information he could find about the tragedy. His five-year obsession to contact the surviving mother and daughter finally culminated in finding them on Facebook.
Margaret Kachadoorian and her daughter, Nora, were in Glendale, Calif. Lobello sent a message saying he wanted to meet them and personally “say I was sorry.”
It took time, but the Kachadoorians agreed. Lobello had contacted Dexter Filkins of The New Yorker, who had written about the tragedy at the time it happened. The reunion, which included Filkins, took place in Glendale at the Kachadoorian home more than a year ago.
“The meeting was tense,” Lobello admitted, and he considered leaving several times, because “part of me felt I didn’t get a chance to fully express myself because of the language barrier and I had so much more to say.”
It could have been a one-time meeting, but Lobello, now 32, kept the lines of communications open.
“I see them all the time. I talk to them every other day. I’ve taken my family up there,” he said.
Marines, he said, “don’t stop caring just because the mission ended.”
SIGHTINGS
Nicolas Cage, ordering a Macallan 18 on the rocks while sharing a Margherita pizza with his wife, Alice, at the bar of Wolfgang Puck Pizzeria & Cucina at Crystals at CityCenter. ... Lunching on Thursday at Lotus of Siam at the Commercial Center: longtime Las Vegas oddsmakers Roxy Roxborough and Art Manteris, with their wives, Alise and Sue, respectively. Roxborough, who founded Las Vegas Sports Consultants in 1982, retired in 1999 and moved to Thailand. He was long seen as the pre-eminent oddsmaker in the U.S., the go-to guy in sports gaming. Manteris, in his 34th year as a local oddsmaker, is vice president of race and sports for Station Casinos. When the Hilton opened its race and sports book in 1986, Manteris was hired to operate it.
THE PUNCH LINE
“Lindsay Lohan is out of rehab! TMZ’s reporting that she’ll spend a few days with a sober coach. Might I suggest she also see a stay-out-of-court coach, a don’t-steal coach, a career coach — and most of all, a driving coach, OK?” — Jay Leno
Norm Clarke’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or email him at norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter @Norm_Clarke. “Norm Clarke’s Vegas,” airs Thursdays on the “Morning Blend” on KTNV-TV, Channel 13.
