<p>This is a story about dear friends of ours.
<a href="http://blogs.ocregister.com/ocworld/2007/03/a_family_meeting.html#more%5B/url%5D">http://blogs.ocregister.com/ocworld/2007/03/a_family_meeting.html#more</a></p>
<p>We should be grateful to live in a nation that still produces people like that. </p>
<p>Thank you, Lord, for making me an American. :)</p>
<p>Sweet story heartcross! Thanks for sharing it.</p>
<p>I'm pretty excited because when my nephew gets done with his second tour in Iraq, he and his wife and son will be stationed at Ft. Lewis...right in my backyard! My hubbie already has big plans for fishing trips and is telling me he needs to get a bigger fishing boat. LOL</p>
<p>4-8-2007 FREDERICKSBURG, Texas ? Residents of this Hill Country town said the combat death of 27-year-old 1st Lt. Phillip I. Neel is a personal reminder of the war's cost.</p>
<p>Neel, a 1998 graduate of Fredericksburg High School, was killed Sunday in a grenade attack in Balad, the Department of Defense said Monday.</p>
<p>"As a community, we're all stunned by his death. It really brings the war more into reality for us," said Natalie Smith, Neel's high school English teacher.</p>
<p>Neel graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2005. He was assigned to Fort Hood's 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.</p>
<p>Neel’s father, retired Colonel Leroy Neel, and his family were notified on Sunday.</p>
<p>“About 200 yards down the road, my wife spotted a white van waiting for us,” he said. “I asked them, ‘Is he still with us?’ And they said, ‘We better go inside and talk.’ And you can interpret that as I did</p>
<p>Thought you might like to know--the young man in the first story arrived home in CA safe and sound. He's learning to change diapers!</p>
<p>A lot of diapers!</p>