'Cigar Marine' gets hero's homecoming See TexKat's email also on post #36, from this Hero's wife.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.
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."
Welcome Home Nick! You were my "desktop guy" for a long while, lol ;)
Unabashed Marine-with-eyepatch-is-an-incredible-hunk-Crush BUMP
***
Thanks for sharing the E-Mail TexCat.
Thanks! I sent that info to Blackfive, as well.
I know that Hugh Hewitt reads both FR and Blackfive, so maybe he can get some more eyes on the Lou Dobbs segment.
Please give my regards to Mrs. Cigar Gunny :)
Hot dang, he looks just as hunky now as he did in the pre-wound photo.
I'd light up a ceegar in his honor, but I quit smoking last year, LOL.
Leni
'Cigar Marine' gets hero's homecoming See TexKat's email also on post #36, from this Hero's wife.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Here is Cigar Marine when he was a baby:
:^D
A Marine through and through!
God bless Ceegar Guy and his family!
Jackie.. have you see this about our Ceegar Guy?
Thanks for tread Martin, ping ragtime & good comments tat..
Tex.. again, pass on good wishes to April & Nick. I loved the thread about their Las Vegas adenture.
in this pix is Nick the one in middle line ; 2nd from right?
Thank you for posting the message from Nick's wife. Glad they both know that there are folks (like F.R. people) that care about them.
It sure looks like it, doesn't it!
If you post a live thread for the Lou Dobbs show, please ping me...and add my love and thanks to April for taking such good care of the homefront, her son, and her hero-hubby.
Isn't it awesome that we can simply thank Ceegar-man, and his family receives it?
The internet is a wondrous thing.
I thank God for the Robinsons, FR, and our fellow FReepers.
And also to share portions of e-mails and pictures I received from April Popaditch.
Good Morning Katherine,
Thank you for your help. I'm still a bit puzzled on how to post this picture and the letter from LCDR Jay R. Grove the Doc. I am going to send you a few pictures on the net, just to see. They sometimes come out large when you first get them, but after you download them and they look big, exit out from that screen and go back in again. That seems to work for me. I am just learning about the home computer and the wonderful things it does. When Nick went to Iraq this year I decided to get a computer. The troops have an Internet cafe so they can communicate with their loved ones and keep up with the world. My son Nicholas is in his last week of school and can't wait, I am taking him and a friend to Disney's California park on their first day off. I will soon be visiting in on Freerepublic and participate, everything and everybody is so interesting there. We love the people, they are our kind of crowd.
Thank you, April
Sgt Haskamp: I enjoyed your stories about the Gunny. I am a general surgeon and one of the doctors that took care of him at Camp Fallujah. I have worried about his vision since the day I saw him here, and am glad to hear that his left eye is improving. One of the stories said he doesn't remember much of what happened to him during his care, and I would like to fill in some of the details. He was here the day General Hagee was visiting. Gunny Popaditch had just rolled in and we were working on him when the General walked up to his litter and identified himself. The blind, sedated Gunny popped to a "supine" attention, and gave the General a hearty "OOOOHHHHRAAAHHHH." I about fell over. Please see the attached, somewhat blurry picture. I don't know if Gunny Popaditch has heard this story, but please feel free to pass it on. I will send a better picture if I can find one. Thanks for documenting the story of an outstanding marine.
Jay Grove LCDR MC USNR
Camp Fallujah
Nick at the fight with Boxing referee Joe Cortez.
The Champ
TexKat, thank you so much for the ping! Much appreciated :)
Ping to Kat's #56, kinds words from Mrs. Ceegar-man - and the awesome letter from surgeon Jay Grove, LCDR, MC, USNR - Camp Fallujah.
(Ooh rah, Sgt. Nick Popaditch!)
Oh! Just learned this AM that our dear niece, a Marine, will be sent to Irag soon. She flew home, rode her quarter horse to the woods, visited with her family, and said 'I'm ready'. It gives me comfort to know that she will be with men of this caliber.
Er, Iraq
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