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The 113th halfway home

Aug-14-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

The following article profiles a soldier home on leave from Mosul, and also contains a good description of conditions there.

Link to Full Article
By Steve Walsh / Post-Tribune staff writer

Even in his desert tan uniform, with pant legs secured in his tight-laced suede boots, there was no adoring crowd to surround Sgt. Major Larry Smith. No one much noticed him. h The Munster soldier was on leave from Mosul, Iraq, where the Indiana National Guard’s 113th Engineer Battalion, based in Gary, has been stationed since late December. He was in Highland this night to address the National Night Out anti-crime awareness event. Smith stood next to a stock car display, waiting for his place in the program. A blond-haired boy, who looked about 10, walked by him and squeezed halfway into the driver’s side window. A few seconds later, he asked Smith if he could sit in the car.

“You’ll have to ask those folks over there,” Smith said.

Smith was home, and more or less invisible.

It was a good place to be, compared with Iraq these days.

It’s searingly hot there now. Insurgent snipers often are accurate.

But this is halfway.

Halfway through the deployment. Halfway through the danger.


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