Army general who commanded in Iraq dies of cancer at age 67

[marble falls]

10. James, my son, at that time was almost as big physically as the General ...

... the General would do inspections on foot to give confidence to local Iraqis would have confidence that the areas he occupied was stable and he could handle Baathist and insurgent forces.

James spent 5 years and one month in the Army, 13 months of it in "Stop Loss" because his 4 year hitch came up while he was in the "sand pile". During that time, he was shot in the chest and only took just a huge bruise on his chest because he was wearing his chest armor. My wife found out about it because one of his friend's mother had asked about how he was doing (first war were troops called home becuse of cell phones). When Joy asked him about it, he said he didn't want to worry her.

We was in a Humvee that got blown up going over a mine, and no one was hurt badly.

Had a rough start getting back into the swing of things when he got back. A friend of his who went into the Marines at the same time, shared an apartment in Miami when James came back. And shot himself with Jame's shotgun.

After the investigation, the police offered Jame's gun back. He asked then to put into a furnace.

After around a two years, after James started to get past the rough passages and was being treated for PSTD, and was evaluated for a shoulder injury from the Humvee incident, he was living with us by then, the ATF called us one day to talk with James about that shot gun - it had been used in a crime. Joy explained we all thought it had been melted down. It appears the PD had auctioned it off.

Today he's in Alaska, has a wonderful girlfriend and is doing well. We visited them in early September.