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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (20866)	12/21/2003 8:22:11 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793718

My step-brother, Billy, was here from 1700-1900. He came over with his mom and my dad and his sister. My son was here and my brother whose daughter Mary Kate, a USMC Sgt, made the assault to Baghdad with the MEU on the East flank. Bill thinks he is getting the flu so he left after two hours, but we agreed to hang out together this week. If he feels ok, we will be going to a VFW tomorrow to attend a meeting about Christmas donations to refugee families in this area. His mom brought his Purple Heart and the citation. I looked through the folder and there was a photo of him standing in the hospital alone with GWB. The president had his arm around Bill's shoulder and they were both grinning. A big thing in SF is our challenge coins. I learned today that GWB has one too and he gave one to Bill. That is probably going to be his best war trophy. It is a beautiful and intricately carved and decorated coin in full color with the presidential seal. He told me he has been approved for a Bronze Star with "V" Device but has not received it yet. The "V" is for valor. I am quite familiar with this award. When he gets it the certificate will say "For Heroism in Ground Combat". He showed me most of his scars. He has a cane and uses it for stairs. He does expect to fully recover but will need substantial rehab time for the knee. There were too many folks around to discuss nitty gritty combat details. We agreed to do that during the week. He did say the Kellog-Root dining facilities are top-rate, the mail, slow initially, seems reasonable now, and ammo and vehicle fuel are no problem ever. His unit's morale was and stayed very high. He had one pre-deployment AWOL, but the soldier returned in time to ship. He said they all believe in the mission. He said he is happy to be home for the holidays and knows he needs time to get back to 100%...He also said he would go back to his unit tomorrow if he could. He received a SATphone call from an NCO in his unit on his cellphone while eating a plate full of lasagna. He also ate a large salad, 2 brownies and a large piece of elaborately decorated cake. Karen had a large crockpot with hot apple cider. He asked for rum in his...I joined him. We agreed to discuss various politicians during the week. My biggest impression was he is tired. Yet he looked tough as a nail. I will let him read all of ya'll's comments in day or so. As he was leaving, I gave him an SF "Let's Roll" sweatshirt and T-shirt and several copies of my book for his buddy's families. uw