Beyond the call of duty
Cincinnati Enquirer
07/04/06
When the Defense Department letter came to Jim Dillinger's Mount Orab home in May 2004 telling him that he was one of 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve being called back for duty in Iraq, there was never any question that he would answer the call. He would go, despite being 43 years old and eight years removed from his service in the Ohio National Guard, despite the fact that he would have to leave his wife, Tammy, behind to care for their three children and that he would have to walk away from a good job for at least a year. He would go and serve for a year with a combat engineer battalion in one of the most dangerous jobs in a dangerous place, searching out and destroying the roadside bombs that had taken the lives of so many fellow soldiers and Marines. And, when he returned, he discovered a truth that shook him to the core and made him question his faith in the military he had served most of his adult life: The Army sent him to Iraq by mistake. Because of a clerical error, Dillinger was taken from his family for 14 months to serve in a war zone when his legal obligation to serve had ended five years earlier...
http://tinyurl.com/hwq6o
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
07/04/06
When the Defense Department letter came to Jim Dillinger's Mount Orab home in May 2004 telling him that he was one of 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve being called back for duty in Iraq, there was never any question that he would answer the call. He would go, despite being 43 years old and eight years removed from his service in the Ohio National Guard, despite the fact that he would have to leave his wife, Tammy, behind to care for their three children and that he would have to walk away from a good job for at least a year. He would go and serve for a year with a combat engineer battalion in one of the most dangerous jobs in a dangerous place, searching out and destroying the roadside bombs that had taken the lives of so many fellow soldiers and Marines. And, when he returned, he discovered a truth that shook him to the core and made him question his faith in the military he had served most of his adult life: The Army sent him to Iraq by mistake. Because of a clerical error, Dillinger was taken from his family for 14 months to serve in a war zone when his legal obligation to serve had ended five years earlier...
http://tinyurl.com/hwq6o
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 5. Jul, 14:17
