California desert Marine town Twentynine Palms reacts to death of bin Laden

While some Americans openly rejoice in the death of Osama bin Laden, there’s a more somber response in the Mojave Desert town of Twentynine Palms, home to the largest US Marine base in the world.

The town’s four-lane drag, Adobe Road, leads to the main gates of the Marine Air Ground Combat Center. Both sides of the street display a gritty patchwork of businesses catering to Marines: barber shops, storefront churches, tattoo parlors, burger joints and bars.

“Last night when I went to pick my grandson up, the young MP come out and was checking my ID,” says Sherri Frazier, who was on base to pick up her grandson shortly after the White House announced bin Laden’s death. “I said, ‘Did you hear bin Laden had been killed?’ He said, ‘Isn’t that great!’”

Frazier, who’s married to a retired Marine, has lived with him in town for 46 years. She used to manage the base’s retail store. Now she runs a tidy thrift shop off base.

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Even as she welcomes the news about bin Laden, Frazier knows Twentynine Palms has lost a lot of Marines in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s why she says the town tends to reserve its celebrations for Marines who make it back home.

“Well, I do think it’s a big deal but I think still, our country will never be the same and we’ll also have to watch and look over our shoulder and everything else,” says Frazier.

Aside from the array of weathered American flags that dot yards and storefronts, and prized public murals that depict Marines in battle, there’s little outward sign in Twentynine Palms of a nation or a town at war — and no obvious rejoicing over the fall of Bin Laden.

“It seems like a normal day,” says a Marine corporal named Thomas, who was on his way out of a barbershop. He didn’t want to give his last name.

He did express a sentiment that’s typical of enlisted men and women in response to bin Laden’s end: They all say the Marine Corps mission, and its inherent dangers, are the same as always.

“I don’t think it really changes anything,” says Thomas. “People just going around, training, doing what they do every day. I don’t think it really affects the mission at hand. Just like how we’re somewhat expendable. I think he is, too.”

Last month, attachments of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment at Twentynine Palms left on their seventh consecutive combat deployment, this time to Afghanistan.