Posted on 05/25/2008 10:42:57 PM PDT by STARWISE
All too familiar with the gambles of war, Jimmy Kinsey, Kyle Riley and a few dozen fellow soldiers landed in the desert. But for these guys this Memorial Day, the most at stake is a few bucks.
The soldiers-turned-high rollers took a private jet to Las Vegas over the weekend for an all-expenses-paid getaway with all the perks normally saved for casinos' richest regulars.
They were greeted at the airport by Wayne Newton, chilled backstage with the guys from Blue Man Group and hobnobbed with Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who runs Las Vegas Sands Corp. and paid for the trip.
The trip, organized by the Armed Forces Foundation, brought 40 wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., to the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
"I'm gonna be bragging about this for a long while," said Kinsey, 23, while hanging out in his penthouse overlooking the nearby Wynn Golf Course.
*snip*
Kinsey, a Marine corporal from Foley, Ala., who lost part of his left leg to an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2006, said he hadn't spent too much time gambling - just a few slots.
"On a scale from one to 10 I gave this trip a 15 when I got on the plane," he said.
Riley, a 21-year-old from Catlett, Va., who also lost part of his left leg to an IED in Iraq, was so overwhelmed by the trip he decided with his fiancee, Alyssa Mergler, to make it their wedding weekend. They planned to wed Monday on a gold and white gondola, courtesy of Adelson, whom Mergler said insisted on having his staff handle the plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Ditto. I think every Freeper who goes to Vegas should patronize this man’s business.
Awesome! God bless patriotic and caring Americans like the Adelsons, indeed.
I will if I go to Vegas.
WELL they say that Bugsy Siegel was former Marine Star or Army dude
Marine corporal Kyle Riley, 21, and his fiance Alyssa Mergler, 21, are shown in their penthouse suite at the Venetian hotel-casino Sunday, May 25, 2008, in Las Vegas. Riley was wounded while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam welcomed 40 injured service members from Walter Reed and National Naval Medical Center to a complimentary holiday weekend at the Venetian. The Adelsons have volunteered to give the couple an all-expense paid wedding on Memorial Day tomorrow at the Venetian.
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