BY MERLE MONAHAN/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
merlemonah@aol.com

IVOR—It was in September when Michael and Ruth Glascock of Ivor received the news they had prayed they would never hear.

Their son, Second Lt. Stephen Glascock who had been deployed to Afghanistan less than three months earlier, had been wounded when the truck in which he was riding was blown up by a roadside bomb. Knocked unconscious, the young Marine’s injuries included two fractured vertebra in his lower back, a broken tail bone and shrapnel in his right foot.

He was awarded the Purple Heart by the Marine Corps Commandant while recovering in Bethesda military hospital in Maryland.

“Oh, but it could have been much worse,” Ruth Glascock said. “He was lucky, and we’re so thankful.”

A 2004 graduate of Southampton High School, Stephen Glascock received a degree in business from Christopher Newport University in 2008 and joined the Marines in January 2009.

“This was all he ever wanted to do,” Ruth Glascock said. “He talked about it all the time when he was in high school, so his father and I told him that if he would finish college and get a degree first, we would support him in anything he wanted to do.”

Glascock went through basic training and attended Officer Candidate School in Quantico followed by logistics school at Camp Johnson, N.C. He reported for duty on Jan. 22, 2010. A platoon commander, Glascock immediately began the workup for deployment to Afghanistan.

Speaking from his parents’ home, he talked about how he and his crew were struck that day.

“Our convoy had taken supplies to the area of operation (front lines) and were on the way back when we hit the bomb,” Glascock said. “As the convoy commander, I was riding in the lead truck with four others, my driver, my sergeant, my gunner and a Marine whose truck had blown up on the way up.”

These bombings are common.

“In fact, this is the fourth time I’ve been hit,” he said.

They meticulously plan routes in hopes of keeping safe.

“But it’s impossible to tell where all the bombs are buried,” Glascock said. “There are no roads and the bombs are just buried randomly.”

Glascock said everyone in his group, including his passenger, were wounded. After the blast, they were all flown to a hospital in Germany. They were later transferred to the hospital in Maryland , where all received Purple Hearts.

Glascock and his wife, Taylor, live in Jacksonville, N.C. He expects to be stationed at the Marine base there until he is well enough to return to duty.

Glascock said he is recovering, but it’s a slow process. He served as grand marshal for Ivor’s first-ever Christmas Parade on Dec. 5.

He visits his parents often and has healed enough to get around the family farm where he grew up. Glascock says it’s been good therapy.

“I felt pretty low when I first got hurt,” he said. “All I wanted to do was come home to the farm and sit in my truck with my dog.”