The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Honoring Our Veterans
"All Gave Some - Some Gave All"

Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher-Owner

10 November 2004

It is hard to have words for our soldiers on Veterans Day that describe how much we owe to each one.

And to parents who lost a son or daughter, such as La Harpe's Mike and Donna James, and Doug and Carol Palmer, of Blandinsville, no words are enough.

This picture, expresses the gratitude of an Iraqi people. It was circulating the email and, of course, we checked it out on the factorfiction.com web site to see if it was true.

According to the Army News Service, it was indeed true. The fact or fiction web page said:

"The picture is of a statue of an American soldier kneeling in honor of a fallen comrade and being comforted by an Iraqi child - is true.

"ARNEWS says the sculptor's name is Kalat. He was forced to fashion statues of Saddam Hussein including some that were later destroyed by U.S. military explosives. The bronze pieces of the statues were sent to Kalat and he made the memorial using a picture of a U.S. soldier, 1st Sgt. Glen Simpson, kneeling as a model.

"According to ARNEWS, Kalat worked with another artist on the Saddam Hussein statutes, but designed and fashioned the U.S. model on his own. It's on display in Iraq and is destined to eventually be on display at Fort Hood, where it will become part of a larger memorial project at the 4th Inf. Div. museum."

We Americans are not the only ones who are grateful for our soldiers. There is a grateful world in need of either liberation or protection who have nowhere to turn but our U.S. Military. We are very proud of those who serve, and today we salute each one. May God bless you and your families.