Posted on 04/09/2004 6:13:18 PM PDT by Eurotwit
INDIANAPOLIS - A Marine from Indiana whose smiling, cigar-smoking image helped symbolize the fall of Baghdad a year ago suffered severe head injuries in fighting this week in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah.
AP Photo
Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch, 36, of Terre Haute, marked Friday's one-year anniversary of the fall at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Surgeons removed a piece of shrapnel that lodged near his optic nerve when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his tank Tuesday in Fallujah, his wife said Friday.
"He had to have his right eye removed. He's very concerned about that," April Popaditch said from Twentynine Palms, Calif., where her husband is based.
She said they spoke for 45 minutes after his surgery ended.
"I cried to him like anyone would to their loved one. Everything just came out," she said.
She said she told him, "I thank God that you have your two arms and two legs. I thank God for the wonderful Marines who were right around your tank to get you off to safety."
The two, who were married 13 years ago Thursday, also exchanged anniversary greetings. They wed a few days after Nick Popaditch returned from his first tour of duty in Iraq (news - web sites) during the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites), and now have a 10-year-old son.
April Popaditch spent their wedding anniversary a year ago watching video footage of her husband's tank in Baghdad. An Associated Press photograph captured him smiling and holding a cigar in his hand with a statue of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) looming in the background shortly before it was toppled.
His company finished its Iraq tour last year, but he joined another company that left for the region at the end of February, April Popaditch said. It was sent to Fallujah, where four Americans were killed and mutilated last week. Fighting this week in Fallujah has killed four Marines and more than 280 Iraqis.
"He is one of those Marines who has his hand raised anytime there's something overseas," April Popaditch said. "He says he goes for the people we lost on September 11."
Popaditch probably will be moved to a hospital in the United States within a few days, said Maj. Daniel Smith, executive officer of the 1st Tank Battalion based in Twentynine Palms. Losing an eye will end Popaditch's tank career, Smith said.
"He's been in the tanks enough, so he will be fine with that," April Popaditch said, but she added she hopes her husband can continue in the service.
By the way (humbly),...you're welcome. Don't do that us old vets, we're used to the abuse. Kindness makes us "get things in our eyes".
I know exactly what you mean. As soon as I read the headline I teared up. Then I read some of the very eloquent posts on this thread (Ragtime Cowgirl, why do you always have to make me cry with your posts? LOL) and the tears just flowed. God bless and his wife, son and entire family.
TexKat, if you get that info can you please ping me?
Thanks for the ping Nully !And Arjay (from post #29):
I am really fed up with the antiwar crowd and the lies of the left. Their constant harping is encouraging the Iraqi extremists and costing coalition (especially American) lives.
I agree. I was especially angered by fat teddy this week and his big mouth. I sent the fat bas*ard two emails, I was so angered!
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Here is the email I sent him EARLY yesterday morning:
Dear Senator Kennedy:
The enemies of our troops in Iraq are gleeful that you have chosen to help weaken our resolve to win the war on terror.
What happened to the days when criticism of the President stopped at the borders ? President Bush has bent over backwards to work with you and get bills passed in the Senate. President Bush has talked about how well you have served your constituents in the Senate. President Bush's father gave you an award earlier this year. And now you are stabbing them both in the back over politics, and endangering the lives of our troops.
Please do the honorable thing and resign immediately.
[MeekOneGOP]
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rubin200404080818.asp
April 08, 2004, 8:18 a.m.
Learning from Sadr
Listen to the Iraqis.
By Michael Rubin
As violence provoked by Muqtada al-Sadr's fringe Jaysh al-Mahdi militia enters its third day, Washington remains in a frenzy of misplaced panic. Senator Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), in remarks rebroadcast throughout the Arab world on the al-Jazeera satellite television, declared "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam and this country needs a new president." Senators Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) and Joseph Biden (D., Del.) raised the spectre of civil war in separate April 6 interviews. Speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate on April 7, Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.) went further, calling on the United States to pull out of Iraq.Allies and adversaries alike interpret such statements as weakness. For Arab liberals, they raise the spectre of American abandonment, an obsession brought on by our failure to support Iraqi freedom in 1991. For militant Islamists and potential Jihadist recruits, the senators' statements reinforce the notion that Americans will reward violence, just as did the Spanish electorate in the wake of the March 11 train bombings. While headlines may scream doom and gloom, more telling is the reaction of the Iraqi street. Muqtada al-Sadr's uprising and the fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi have put Iraq to the test. And Iraqis have passed with flying colors.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rubin200404080818.asp
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That National Review article is posted on FR HERE !
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