Posted on 02/19/2005 7:24:29 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Meet Corporal John Quinones, whose family I brought out to L.A. for a little vacation a few weeks ago. He was home on leave from nineteen months in Iraq after six months in Afghanistan. He's 25 years old. He was in the reserves, but he signed up for the Regular Army after 9/11. "I wanted to go to war against those people," he said.
With him came his wife, Yenncy, holding their one-year daughter Samantha. She doesn't really know her father because he's been away fighting in Iraq for the whole time she has been alive except for one week when she was born.
Yenncy also cares for their two year old, Chris, who also barely knows his father because his father has been fighting for our children, whom he does not even know.
Corporal Quinones is with the 2/7, the second battalion of the seventh brigade of the First Cavalry Division. His unit went right down the main street of Fallujah in Bradley fighting vehicles when that city was cleared of major terrorist bases a few months ago. He saw numbers of his close friends "lit up" or shot in the battle. He survived, although he has shrapnel in his neck and in his ankle from a mortar attack at about the same time.
His standard day involved working with a unit of the Iraqi National Guard to go out on patrols. He says the ones who believe in a free Iraq are among the bravest men he has ever worked with. "They don't even look for cover when the shooting starts," he says. "They just shoot it out until either they or the bad guys are dead." Out of the ten best ones in the unit, all ten have been murdered by the terrorists.
Tears came to his eyes when he told me that.
He goes out on patrol carrying a short barrel assault rifle called an M-4, a M-79 rocket launcher with high explosive rounds, a Glock pistol, and an AK-47 plated in silver he took from one of Saddam's palaces and which he will leave in Iraq. He wears almost 100 pounds of body armor in 140 degree heat. His unit is attacked with roadside bombs almost every day, hit with rocket-propelled grenades almost every day, often shelled with mortars. They go on raids in the middle of the night driving with lights out and night vision goggles, exchanging tracer fire with insurgents. His Bradley was hit with a RPG about two weeks ago. He only survived because his B-240 machine gun took the brunt of the explosion.
He says that when mortars hit or an IED goes off, "I don't think, I just do." He loves the Army and wants to stay in his whole career if he can.
His wife cries when she hears him talk about going back to Iraq after his leave, which he did on February 5.
For what he does, he gets paid $1,900 a month, which includes combat pay. He doesn't have any credit cards or a computer. He told me confidentially that when he gets up in a tree and spots terrorists laying a roadside bomb and lights them up with his B-240, he feels as if he's earning his pay. His wife cries at that, too.
What did you do today?
I tell you, Ben would move heaven and earth to help our troops. I am thankful for patriots such as Ben.
Ben Stein **PING** Awesome as usual, he tells of hosting a military family.
I have always enjoyed his articles at The American Spectator.
Ben Stein ping
Bump for valor and freedom.
Thanks for the ping....what can I say....Im in awe of these guys and gals...
God Bless the Troops !!!
Military spouses who stay home and support their soldier's decision to fight and stick with their unit deserve just as much admiration as those in the field.
Ben Stein, telling it like it is.
I still don't think we pay soldiers enough.
You may be right, but I've got to admit I can't fathom what they have endured. Like you, I respect their willingness to lay down their lives for their countrymen.
bttt!
Rice/Stein '08
Ben Stein as VP? He'd tear your heart out with truth. Condi could close the front door and sleep in all day...cause Ben could step out onto all of the Sunday morning talk shows and clean up the mess that we currently see.
Thankya for the ping to a great article.
We need more Ben Steins. A fine writer who lays it out for his readers.
I wish I were rich. I would love to take every single family and give them a vacation. There is just NO way to explain to them how grateful we are. I do what I can, but it's so small.
Funny. I thought the same thing.
FNC is running a show tonight hosted by John Gibson that addresses the Hollywood bias. Ben is featured as a critic of his neighbors. Surely worth watching.
Thanks Nick, you are a pal. BTW, as my beloved said he will be on FOX tonight, a show hosted by John Gibson. It will be worth watching.
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