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Son accepts medal for soldier's sacrifice
Tampa Bay Sun Times ^ | April 4, 2005 | ALEX LEARY

Posted on 04/04/2005 9:43:12 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen

President Bush will give 11-year-old David Smith his father's Medal of Honor today, the two-year anniversary of his death in Iraq.

HOLIDAY - David Smith was chatting about his father, and the subject turned to cookies. When there was only one left, David said, his dad always took it.

"Come on, that's not fair," David would protest. "Life," Paul Smith would playfully reply, "is not fair." So they would tussle, David vs. Dad. Over cookies. Over the good seat on the couch. That's just the way the Smith household worked, until April 4, 2003.

Since that day, David gets to sit wherever he wants. He always gets the last cookie. Sometimes he holds one up, looks skyward and says, "Ha-ha. I got it."

David gets pretty much anything these days, except what he wants most.

Dad.

"When I come in the door," David says, "he's not there to hug me."

Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith died in Iraq two years ago today. The soldiers he led still talk about how Smith single-handedly manned a machine gun to cover their retreat from a courtyard near Saddam International Airport. They think he saved many lives that day..................................."

(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: award; bush43; hero; iraq; moh; paulsmith

1 posted on 04/04/2005 9:43:13 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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To: Stand Watch Listen

Love life
and fear not death.

A living dog
is better than a dead lion.

Better to be alive,
and the slave of a pauper,
than the king of all the dead.

Apologies are useless to a dead man.

Everything a man has
he will give for his life.

Greater love has no man than this:
that he lay down his life for his friends.

Heroism is the choice
of a short and glorious life
over a long, obscure one.

Death is nature's way
of telling us to slow down.

Let the living look to the living
and let the dead past
bury its dead.

Life is unbearable,
but death isn't so pleasant either.

A hero must know when to die.

The unexamined life
is not worth living.

But then the unlived life
is not worth examining.

Life is too short to be small.


2 posted on 04/04/2005 9:49:56 AM PDT by cll
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To: Stand Watch Listen

I heard a brief soundbite on CBS news this morning on the radio where perky Katie Couric was interviewing this boy.

Katie: "Would you rather have this medal or your dad?"

Boy: "I'd rather have my dad."


What a groundbreaking question Katie. I bet it took you at least one call to the DNC to come up with that one.


3 posted on 04/04/2005 9:53:58 AM PDT by Dubya-M-Dees (If you're pregnant.. it's a baby..)
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To: Dubya-M-Dees

Katie the Harpy!

I would have like to have heard this response:

Boy: "I'd rather have my dad. Are you a stupid b*tch, or what?!"


4 posted on 04/04/2005 9:56:29 AM PDT by Frank_Discussion (May the wings of Liberty never lose a feather!)
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To: Dubya-M-Dees

Did she really say that!!!???!!!!

If so, I can't imagine anything more stupid.


5 posted on 04/04/2005 10:06:04 AM PDT by Gator101
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To: Dubya-M-Dees

What a nasty question.

When you start taking your angry politics out on fatherless children, it's time to throw in the towel.


6 posted on 04/04/2005 10:08:06 AM PDT by halieus (God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.)
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To: Stand Watch Listen

Selfless.

http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/


7 posted on 04/04/2005 10:11:48 AM PDT by zek157
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To: halieus

What do u think, this woman has a habit of bearing her butt in public, which is the seat of her sensitivity.


8 posted on 04/04/2005 10:12:04 AM PDT by dts32041 (We have instituted our own set of Nuremberg laws.)
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To: Gator101

If those weren't her exact words, they're very close.

I also can't be 100% positive that it was Katie, but it sure sounded like her. I've heard that whiny voice long enough to make the identification. The soundbite came directly after the news story about the medal of honor award. Those two sentences, the question from Katie, and the answer from the boy, was the complete soundbite.

A few years ago I would never have noticed something like this. I am much more aware of media bias thanks to Free Republic!

/me gets out his wallet.


9 posted on 04/04/2005 10:22:57 AM PDT by Dubya-M-Dees (If you're pregnant.. it's a baby..)
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To: Stand Watch Listen

You mean there's other news happening besides Schiavo and the death of the pope? Whodathunkit! Thanks for posting some refreshing news. Much appreciated.


10 posted on 04/04/2005 10:26:54 AM PDT by Wolfstar (If you can lead, do it. If you can't, follow. If you can't do either, become a Democrat.)
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To: Dubya-M-Dees
What a groundbreaking question Katie. I bet it took you at least one call to the DNC to come up with that one.

It does make you wonder what the heck is wrong with these people. When I did a preinterview with CNN, before an interview with opposing family views on the air, the CNN bimbo asked me a stupid question about like the one Katie asked. Because I wasn't protesting the war she asked "Don't you worry about your son?". As an adult it was easy to say of course I do and what the heck is wrong with you asking a question like that?

My prayers go out to this brave family. They show a lot more courage than the idiotic press that interviews them.

11 posted on 04/04/2005 10:33:36 AM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghanistan Honor Roll students.)
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To: Dubya-M-Dees
Katie: "Would you rather have this medal or your dad?"

This clodish and insensitive question from one of those who claim to be sooooo sensitive? A pox on her.

12 posted on 04/04/2005 10:44:37 AM PDT by Carolinamom (Proud to be 1 of 30 NC monthly donors to FR)
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