|
EL PASO, Texas (CNN) -- U.S. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson
wanted to wield a whisk, not a rifle. When she enlisted in the Army in 1998, her mission was to become a chef, not a soldier.
Preparing meals for the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas, Johnson, 30, was getting the cooking training she sought. But that was before President Bush declared Iraq a point on the "axis of evil." It was before she got her February orders to deploy to the Persian Gulf region
MISSION, Texas (CNN) -- Edgar Hernandez was just months from concluding his military career when he was swept into war. On March 23, enemy forces ambushed his U.S. Army maintenance company in Iraq.
Afterwards, Hernandez was one of 12 members from the Fort Bliss, Texas-based 507th Maintenance Company to be listed as captured, killed or determined missing.
Three weeks later, Hernandez was one of seven missing U.S. troops freed by advancing U.S. Marines north of Baghdad.
Sgt. James Riley, one of seven missing U.S. prisoners of war freed on Sunday, is a native of New Zealand but moved to the United States with his family when he was a young boy.
On March 23, Iraqi troops ambushed the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas, and Riley was one of 12 from the group to be captured, killed or determined missing.
His family was told by the Pentagon that Riley was one of the prisoners of war found safe and sound Sunday just north of Baghdad, a family representative told CNN.
"[A U.S. military official] notified us, confirmed our son was one of them. They're in good condition," Athol Riley, James'
Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young
Jr., one of seven U.S. troops found safe and sound on Sunday, weeks after their capture by Iraqi forces.
"I'm ecstatic," he said, saying he was so happy he could "kiss the world."
On March 24, his son became a prisoner of war. Under heavy fire, the 26-year-old Apache helicopter flyer's chopper went down in Karbala, Iraq, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad. Captured along with Young was David S. Williams, 30, of Florida.
Both are chief warrant officers with the Aviation Battalion, 1/227th Company C, 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas. Williams is a 12-year veteran, and Young enlisted three years ago.
FORT HOOD, Texas (CNN) -- The family of Army
helicopter pilot David Williams, 30, held as a prisoner of war in Iraq for three weeks, found out Sunday that he was one of seven U.S. troops that had been rescued near Tikrit.
David Williams Sr., said he was convinced his son was safe before the official word came, after seeing images of the rescued troops on CNN. "It's definitely him," Williams Sr. said. "He's looks in great shape."
"There's a lot of big smiles and excitement," Williams Sr. told The Associated Press by telephone from Fort Hood, where he was spending the weekend with his son's wife, Michelle, and their two children, Jason, 2, and Madison, 5 .
"Michelle just wants everyone to know that she thanks everyone for the support."
ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico (CNN) -- Anecita Hudson, mother of
U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, said, "At last they found my Joseph," on Sunday when she found out her son turned up safe and sound after spending time as prisoner of war in Iraq.
Hudson was one of seven missing U.S. troops who were found near Tikrit on Sunday, three weeks after their capture.
"The Army, they let me know that my Joseph is safe," Ms. Hudson told CNN.
"I'm crying and I'm happy," she said.
On March 23, Iraqi troops ambushed the 507th Maintenance Company, which is based at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Hudson, 24, became one of 12 in the unit to be captured, killed or missing.
Hudson and his wife, Natalie, began dating when she was a sophomore at Alamogordo High School in New Mexico.
VALLEY CENTER, Kansas (CNN) -- Patrick Miller, a 23-year-old Kansan, was a welder before becoming a
private in the U.S. Army.
Miller, father of a 4-year-old son and a 7-month-old daughter, joined the military just last summer to pay off student loans, according to his half-brother, Thomas Hershberger.
After shipping out, Miller on March 23 found himself one of five lost members of his unit, the 507th Maintenance Company based at Fort Bliss, Texas, who were captured by Iraqi troops.
On Sunday, he and six other prisoners of war in Iraq was freed near Tikrit.
Shane Parker, Miller's brother, received the good news from family members.
|
