Close to home
 

John Aaron Blanchard is a regular guy with a regular job here at our mill. His unit was called up last year and he has been in Iraq for the last 9 months. He came home in June with a nasty leg injury. The mill held a "welcome home" party for him last week. He has a steel basket around his leg with rods poking into his leg in several places. It made me hurt just to look at it.

A supervisor at our mill has a son in Iraq also. He frequently sends out updates about his son. Here is a copy of his update this morning.

Phillip?s unit was swiping a small town around the Haditha dam yesterday and ran into heavy resistance from the insurgents. Phillip carries 18 marines (grunts) on his track, 2 were killed and 6 were seriously injured. Amazingly Phillip is in good spirits this morning.

God bless these boys.

Chilidog

Georgia National Guard , a few weeks ago , sent over the 48th Brigade Combat Team , about 3,000 soldiers. They lost their first four soldiers Sunday to an IED. . One of their officers said " They are amazing. They call each other Brother, we took away all their social support and brought them here where they know they only have each other for support , they fight for each other , they cover each other" Wishing all my Brothers and Sisters in harms way a safe trip home. Thank you for your service :32:

AMEN

:32:

Send John my best and I'm sure he will make a speedy recovery. Shit happens and he knows that but all and all I wish I could take some of his pain.

My very best to John and Welcome Home to him and his family. We are proud of his service to country and all like him.

God Bless and take care.

My friend at work sent out another update on his son in Iraq. His e-mail address is in the paragraph below. I plan on writing to him, but I thought it might mean more to hear something from somebody that has been in combat and knows what he is going through.

Chilidog

Phillip was able to call home this morning. Under current conditions he seems ok.last week took a toll on his unit. Phillip is normally 3rd in formation when they are on patrol. Phillip was moved to 4th to become the med e vac track on this exercise. The track that was destroyed was 3rd . It would mean a lot to him to get an email from anyone here or if you have time you can set up an account with motomail.us and he or anyone serving in Iraq will get your letter within 24 hrs. pamck51@yahoo.com .

The Gulfport Marines support the 325th from Ohio and the 323rd from Penn. What this means is that they carry them in their tracks.



Thanks

These kids are awesome. God bless 'em all. They are in my prayers daily.

Sent him an email. God bless and keep them.

It sure does Hit Close to Home
 

These young men and women are the Best.

Our prayers go out to each of them.

Keith

Thanks David,
I sent him an e-mail, but I thought it might mean more to get something from some of you "been there-done that" guys.

Chilidog