My dear friend has requested prayers for her son (and the troops, overseas, as we keep hoping this will be over soon). Please keep the prayers coming, thanks. This letter was also sent to me although she lives down the road from me, as we grew up together.. the letter reads...
Hi, Everyone! We sure had a rough day yesterday. W.J. and a Iraq cop opened up the out house at the hotel where they are keeping the Mayor of Mosul . W.J. heard noises and him and the cop went in. They couldn't find any thing so W.J. had to use the crapper. He has diarrhea . So he had finished up and hear more noises. He saw a Iraqi in black clothes. Didn’t know if it was friend or foe. They have a lot of Iraqi cops also.So he looked out and this Iraqi shot W.J. twice in the head. He had his helmet on( doesn't know why he wore where he did, normally he doesn't in the compound). Two bullets lodged in his helmet. It threw him about 10ft on the floor, he lost his gun, when he fell.The guy was walking over to see if he could finish him off, so W.J. had his vest on and pulled out a grenade and threw it in the guys face. He said you should of seen the look on the guys face Dad. Wally asked if the Iraqi met his maker, he said he was not at liberty to say.Then he said that the commander said he thought the guy had explosives in his backpack. So the only way they could of thought that, is if he blew up! W.J. has whip lash and his face is swollen and he can't hear well from the grenade also some cuts from the grenade.He said he felt like some one took a sledge hammer to his face.He was on pain killers. He is getting checked out and may go to Qatar or Germany, or might just stay there , we are not sure until some test are done what is happening to him yet. He will be back out there I sure , thank God he wasn't injured more. He said he will wear his helmet from now on. I told Wally I hope you told him to say his prayers tonight! Love and lots of those PRAYERS. Lana and Wally
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 11:52 PM Subject: News on WJ. We got back home just before ten tonight, and here was a phone message from (Ir) asking us to give her a call if it wasn't too late. She sounded serious, so I called kher immediately, and got the bad news. As could be expected, she was pretty excited so it was hard to put the main pieces together, but from what I could make out, he had been shot and was in a hospital and had talked to (her hubby, W.) and didn't know where he was going from there. We are so sorry to hear this, and hope and pray that he will be alll right. You certainly have a lot on your minds and hands in these troubled times. May God bless all of you. We will wait to hear more as to how he is and how it happened. Love and PRAYERS , (R and J )
thanks, Deb
[ August 07, 2003, 12:59 AM: Message edited by: Deb Fowler ]
Posted by Jim Upchurch (Member # 209) on :
Scary stuff. Makes a bad day at the sign shop look pretty good. I'll pray for an early end to this mess and the safe return of our troops.
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Jim, thanks for the reply, we are darn lucky to have others giving up their safety for us, as we go about freely... makes our troubles seem small, doesn't it.
Posted by Robert Larkham (Member # 2913) on :
I have a couple of friends and a cousin over there. I don't have the balls to do what these kids are doing. I think about them often.
Posted by Steve Manning (Member # 3947) on :
Couldn't help almost tearing up reading this. One of our best friends' son and daughter-in-law, (they were married just before deploying), are in that hell hole of a place now. Our prayers go out to them. Also, we hope that your friend's boy will be alright. Keep us posted. The sad thing about this war is it's hard to tell who is enemy or friendly.
Posted by pierre (Member # 1462) on :
Thanks for the post, Deb. I have a few personal stakes in this brewhaha. This is the wrong board for me to post details, but the St.Maries are with you.
k31
Posted by Bill&Jane Diaz (Member # 2549) on :
Our son, Ben, was in the National Guard and was called up to Germany last year as a member of support troups for the Army. He is back now. We have one friend whose son is in special services and they don't and CAN'T know where he is. Our cousin is in Kuwait managing the building of patriot missles. Nancy & Dan Bennett's daughter was in Qatar...not sure if she is still there. Everyday I look at the photos of the guys on my frig and pray for all of them! That has to be a rough thing for them ALL to go thru! Jane
