Tension mounted daily the past two months for John and Debbie McCarroll of Des Moines.

The anxiety was not caused because John McCarroll was interviewing for Iowa State’s director of university relations position, a job he got last week.

The McCarrolls were anxious about the well-being of their son, Matt McCarroll.

Matt, a 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in the agro-forestry program, was stationed in Albania, a country being torn apart by anti-government protests.

The younger McCarroll, along with 73 other Peace Corps volunteers, was evacuated from Tirana, the Albania capital, by the U.S. Marine Corps last Friday under small arms fire.

“The horror of not knowing was the worst part,” Mrs. McCarroll said. “Matt will be home next Tuesday night.” He will arrive at the Des Moines Airport at about 8 p.m.

Evacuation under gunfire

The Peace Corps called the McCarroll home Wednesday, March 12, to report that the volunteers would be evacuated from Tirana on a chartered plane the next morning.

But on Thursday morning the McCarrolls learned through watching CNN that the Tirana airport had been closed because of gunfire and Tirana was in chaos. Later in the morning, Peace Corps officials called to say the volunteers were still in Tirana and there were plans for a military evacuation.

During the evening, the McCarrolls learned that the evacuation had begun. Marine Corps helicopters had evacuated about 50 children, but there were still 160 Americans, including 74 Peace Corps volunteers, on the ground in Tirana.

“Friday morning … CNN was reporting that the Marine helicopters were under fire,” Mrs. McCarroll said, “I did not know if Matt had made it out.”

But, finally, at 9:50 a.m. Friday, Peace Corps officials called to report that Matt had been safely evacuated from Albania. At 10:30 a.m., the McCarrolls received a telephone call from their son. He called from Brindisi, Italy, a coastal town across the Adriatic Sea opposite Albania.

Marine Corps helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Nassau had ferried the volunteers from the U.S. Embassy compound in Tirana to the aircraft carrier in the Adriatic and then on to Brindisi.

“He said he was safe,” Mrs. McCarroll said. “He had high praise for the Marines and said he got out with his camera, his backpack, a pair of jeans, a pair of boots, a pair of sandals and the clothes on his back. He said they left Tirana under gunfire.”

From Brindisi, McCarroll and his colleagues were bused north to Bari, Italy, where they boarded a chartered plane for Bucharest, Romania.

At 4:50 p.m. Friday, McCarroll called his parents again, this time from a hotel in Bucharest.

“He was in the Park Hotel in Room 911 — we thought that was appropriate,” Mrs. McCarroll said. “He said he had had the same clothes on for four days.”

Trouble brews in Albania

Matt McCarroll, an alumnus of Ripon College in Wisconsin who earned a degree in political science, began his Peace Corps service in June of 1996. After three months of language and technical training in Albania, he was officially sworn in as a new Peace Corps volunteer at a ceremony in Tirana.

McCarroll initially had difficulty finding housing and lived and worked in difficult conditions during his first assignment in a small southern village near Vlora, Albania.

In his letters to his parents, he wrote frankly about Albania’s many political, social and economic problems.

McCarroll soon learned that marijuana is an important cash crop in the poor and troubled country. He mentioned Mafia influence and violence.

While living near Vlora, McCarroll was assaulted, held up two or three times for money, once at gunpoint.

At the end of December, McCarroll was reassigned to the village of Zemblak. Conditions were better there and he enjoyed living with a Muslim family.

On Jan. 28, the Peace Corps restricted volunteers’ travel in the country as a safety measure. McCarroll continued his work on a canal and road building project.

A state of emergency

During February and March the country slipped further into disorder.

On Feb. 28, four people were killed in Vlora. On March 1, the government resigned. The next day the Albanian Parliament declared a state of emergency.

On March 6, government aircrafts bombed a village in the southern Albania.

On March 9, Peace Corps officials called the McCarrolls to report that all volunteers had been evacuated from their villages and were in Tirana.

Matt McCarroll is among those evacuees now completing the Peace Corps’ closure of service process in Bucharest where the organization has training and housing facilities and staff.

Having completed nine months of a two-year commitment in Albania, he has the option of reapplying for another Peace Corps assignment. McCarroll, who earned praise from Peace Corps officials for his work in Albania, has told his parents he is considering working as an election monitor in the Albanian elections scheduled for June.

“I’m fine with it,” Mrs. McCarroll said. “I have so much confidence in this person. I want him to do what he wants to do. I’m happy to give him our blessing.”

The McCarrolls said they are, of course, looking forward to seeing their son.