SSgt Beberniss: Wounded warrior, husband, father

Photo By Laurie Pearson | Leslie Beberniss, the wife of Staff Sgt. Nicholas Beberniss, and their children, pose for a photo during a family event. (Photo courtesy of Staff Sgt. Nicholas Beberniss)  

BARSTOW, CA, UNITED STATES

09.08.2016

Story by Laurie Pearson  

Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow

For Staff Sergeant Nicholas W. Beberniss, range safety officer aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., family is the most important blessing in this world, and his is about to grow by one more member.
Currently, he and his wife of 12 years, Leslie, have two children: Taylor (9) and Mason (4). Within a few short months, they will be adopting a 1-year-old baby, rounding out their family with another daughter. By all accounts, it is an exciting time for them, but the road has been wrought with intense ups and downs for this loving couple.
“Nick and I met through mutual friends at a country bar in early 2003,” Leslie explained. The unit, to which he was assigned, the 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at 29 Palms, was just getting back from an 11-month deployment to Japan. “A bunch of us got together to welcome them home at the bar. Nick was among those Marines. I had met him a few times before so I knew who he was. That's when this Boot Marine (Nick) decided he wanted to make small talk.”
What he did not realize was that Leslie was an “Army brat” and fully capable of verbally sparring with him. A year later they were still dating, with long distance drives from Fort Irwin where she worked to 29 Palms where he was stationed. She received an urgent message telling her to “call Nick ASAP.” Upon returning his call, she was informed that his unit was being deployed to Iraq within two weeks.
“My heart was broken,” she said. “Prior to that he was in the field so I hadn't seen him for two weeks; now I (wouldn’t) see him for seven months. As I got off the phone, I cried and as bad as it sounds I always remembered my dad telling his soldiers that if the Army wanted you to have a girlfriend or a wife, they would have issued you one. Automatically tears stopped and I knew right then and there that Nick Beberniss had my heart, and I was going to wait for him. The two weeks went by fast! I drove to 29 Palms every day straight from work at Fort Irwin and drove back home to Barstow at 1-2 a.m. February 14 came, and once again I drove to 29 Palms, but it wasn't for a romantic dinner or flowers and chocolates. It was to see my Marine pack all his things in my truck and help him clean his room because they were leaving early the next day. I got there and started packing and cleaning his barracks room as he was in and out, back and forth between the battalion and armory. After the fourth or fifth trip, he brought me a bag from the Exchange. In that bag was a box, and when I opened that box he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said YES!”
For the next five and a half months, they talked as often as they could manage while then Lance Cpl. Beberniss and his unit were deployed to Iraq. It was during one of these conversations that she mentioned a dream she had experienced.
“I’d had a horrible dream the night before that left me uneasy,” she explained. “As we chatted he told me he couldn’t talk long and that they were heading out on patrol. I told him to be careful because the dream was of an explosion and he was in it. He chuckled and said ‘you and your dreams! I’ll be fine’. We said I love you and hung up the phone. I wasn’t expecting the next call that I got.”
Later that day, July 21, 2004, while on patrol, Lance Cpl. Beberniss called his fiancé, but he “sounded horrible and was not making sense.”
“He told me he had been hit,” she said. “The phone went silent, and I fell to my knees crying.”
Their patrol vehicle hit a double-stacked anti-tank mine. The explosion ripped through the vehicle and the two men as they were exiting the rig. The blast threw him 60 meters. It was later reported that the mine was planted by the Mujahedeen.
For the next two and a half weeks, Leslie and “her Marine’s” family waited anxiously for information about their loved one. He was treated in Iraq first.
“While receiving medical treatment from a medical facility in Iraq, I had two cardiac arrests and lost a good portion of blood,” Staff Sgt. Beberniss explained.
He was then transported to Germany before being brought stateside to Navy Medical Center San Diego where he would be treated for the next eight and a half long years.
“He arrived at NMCSD on my birthday,” she said. “It was the best birthday present ever, getting my Marine back.”
However, when he arrived, she was shocked by his condition.
“My 225 pound Marine was emaciated, battered and bruised,” Leslie said. “When reading his chart, I was in shock! The medical chart read that he weighed 130 pounds and was a Combat Casualty. It stated that he sustained a broken rib cage, punctured lung, broken back in four places, a fractured pelvis in two places, two broken legs, and severe head trauma. My heart sank.”
His right leg was eventually amputated below the knee.
Leslie exhausted her sick and annual leave to be by her Marine’s side as he lay in the hospital. She slept in her truck to save on driving the long distance, even receiving a ticket for doing so by military police at one point. Because they were not yet married, the nurses and doctors refused to share information with her, despite the couple’s requests and often shooed her out of the room.
“I was done! I knew I loved Nick, and he loved me so I went down to the San Diego courthouse and got information on how to apply for a marriage license when the other party can’t be present,” she said. “I got the information, scheduled a notary to come to the hospital then called the Navy chaplain to marry Nick and me in the hospital ward. After the wedding, I waited for that nurse to come in! When she finally came into the room and said ‘you know the drill, the doctors are making their rounds,’ I had the pleasure of introducing myself as Mrs. Beberniss and advised her that I would be staying and waiting for the doctors. The look on her face made my day, week, month and YEAR!”
Over the course of several years, now Staff Sgt. Beberniss has had multiple surgeries to include the amputation of his right leg below the knee, back surgeries, and more for his other injuries. To this day, however, he serves his country as one proud Marine.
“I always wanted to be a United States Marine because I believed in protecting and fighting for something bigger than myself,” Beberniss said. He continues to reenlist.
“The Commandant’s view is that if you can do a job in the Marine Corps regardless of your limitations and/or disability then you can still stay on active duty,” he said.
Though people call him a hero, he humbly directs attention to his wife in particular and to other military spouses.
“Leslie is my hero, and I owe her my all,” Beberniss said. “For someone to have to go through the life that she has been through for the past 12 years and wanted to continue to push on … that is a hero! I don't think the spouses get enough credit,” he explained. “She is the reason why I am still here and continuing with my career when I could have easily given up and gotten out a long time ago.”
“We are all here for a reason,” Beberniss said. “For me, the reason is my family. They are the reason why I wake up and push through the pain.”
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• Date Taken: 09.08.2016
• Date Posted: 09.26.2016 16:58
• Story ID: 210645
• Location: BARSTOW, CA, US