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Posted on 06/07/2004 12:16:55 PM PDT by martin_fierro

'Cigar Marine' gets hero's homecoming

Hammond native returns to region from Iraq

BY SUSAN ERLER Times Staff Writer

HIGHLAND -- The war in Iraq took his right eye, nearly deafened his right ear and left scars, now nearly healed, on his otherwise smooth face.

No matter.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch would go back in a heartbeat, he said Sunday.

"I plan to go back once I get able to see the bad guy," said Popaditch at an emotional homecoming thrown by family and friends at American Legion Memorial Post 180.

Popaditch, who grew up in Hammond before moving to Terre Haute in his late teens, returned to the U.S. more than a month ago. His wife and children remain in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where Popaditch is stationed.

A rocket-propelled grenade, fired from a rooftop into the hatch of the tank Popaditch commanded, blew up in his face April 7 in Fallujah, Iraq.

The attack came a year to the day from when an Associated Press photographer captured a smiling Popaditch smoking a cigar, with the just fallen statue of Saddam Hussein in the background.

The photograph ended up on newspaper front pages, winning Popaditch worldwide attention as the "Cigar Marine."

"That was a great day," he said. "It felt like the tide had turned."

His feelings about the war, and America's involvement in it, haven't changed, he said.

"I believe in it 100 percent," he said. "The Iraqi people were living under a dictator. Everybody should have the right to be free."

The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S. there, Popaditch said.

Soon, surgeons in the U.S. will implant an artificial eye to replace the one destroyed by the grenade, and restore some of his diminished hearing with a hearing aid.

But on Sunday, Popaditch stood tall and strong, a black patch slung over the right side of his face.

His homecoming party, coming as America commemorated the D-Day invasion 60 years ago, was especially significant, he said.

"But the focus today should be the Americans who've fought in the past," he said. "This is the most incredible welcome home."

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch at American Legion Memorial Post 180 in Highland.

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Marine Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch would go back in a heartbeat, he said Sunday.

"I plan to go back once I get able to see the bad guy," said Popaditch at an emotional homecoming thrown by family and friends at American Legion Memorial Post 180.

...His feelings about the war, and America's involvement in it, haven't changed, he said.

"I believe in it 100 percent," he said. "The Iraqi people were living under a dictator. Everybody should have the right to be free."

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Thank you from Cee-gar man and family

Posted on 04/30/2004 11:05:15 AM EDT by Cee-gar Man US Marine*

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Thank you, and God bless you, Gunnery Sgt. Nick - and *family!

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