Posted on 12/02/2006 4:11:22 PM PST by jmc1969
It's not likely that Jerry Kelly will ever forget his 40th birthday, which just happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day.
While his family was at home in Madison, Wis., enjoying turkey with all the trimmings, Kelly was standing atop one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Baghdad, where he saw in the distance the smoke from a car bomb.
Kelly and four other PGA Tour members spent eight days in Iraq as part of the USO's "Operation Links Handshake Tour."
"It was a life-changing experience," Kelly said in a telephone interview Friday. "It was the coolest thing I've ever done."
"We hit balls off of Saddam's palace, off the back of a tank, off the wing of an Iraqi MIG fighter," Kelly said. "We stopped a soccer game in the Kurd region and hit balls off the field into Turkey. We hit balls in Mosul.
He came away with a new appreciation for what the soldiers are accomplishing and expressed in strong terms his disdain for how the war was being covered by the American media.
"Our soldiers are so selfless," he said. "We need to be promoting them and telling people what a great job they're doing. All they're hearing is bashing.
"One guy told me, `I'm hesitant to do the job I was trained for. I don't want to return fire because I might be on CNN the next day.' That's sad. That's a guy risking his life for us. He doesn't want his family to see him on CNN being portrayed the way those guys are being portrayed."
"They're spreading so much goodwill," he said. "All the kids are coming up to them and hugging them and mobbing them. People were waving at us. They want us there.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Incidentally, the other four golfers are Frank Lickliter II, Donnie Hammond, Howard Twitty and Corey Pavin.
I love golf!
Good stuff. I'd love to hit the links in Ramadi.:-}
I'm sending this to a host of friends.
This is AWESOME.
I love watching pro golf above all other sports. Now, I'll enjoy it even more so.
Corey Pavin, from Oxnard, CA where I grew up (and moved from 2 years ago, to your state :).
Of course, if your ball sets off an IED, it will cost you a stroke.
And a ball.
just par for the course- sorry- boo hissss I couldn't resist lol
Oxnard, CA.... a town with back-to-back Optometrist mayors.
This further supports my observation that it's really hard to find a liberal on a golf course....
It counts as a dimpled chad.
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