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 Posted: 02/22/05 - 10:46 Post subject: Another noteworthy soldier
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Captain brings boy home to Wis.
February 21, 2005
MAUSTON, Wis. -- When Capt. Scott Southworth took his soldiers to a Baghdad orphanage in 2003 to befriend the children, a small boy with cerebral palsy immediately returned the favor, crawling across the floor to sit next to him.
''By the time we left that first day, he was trying to take off my watch or to do anything he could to keep me from leaving the orphanage,'' Southworth said.
More than a year later, Southworth has made a return trip to Iraq and brought 11-year-old Ala'a back to Wisconsin, where Southworth now works as a district attorney.
Iraqi law won't allow Southworth to adopt Ala'a, but he was able to bring the boy home last month under a ''humanitarian parole'' that lets him make sure the boy gets medical care and goes to school.
Southworth, 32, who is single, knew the alternative for Ala'a was life in a government orphanage with little chance of adequate medical care or an education.
''One of the Iraqi doctors told me that if Ala'a went there, there was a good chance his life was over -- and that wasn't just because he'd be warehoused in a room; he meant his life might be 'over,''' Southworth said.
AP
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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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Posted: 02/22/05 - 14:37 Post subject:
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''By the time we left that first day, he was trying to take off my watch or to do anything he could to keep me from leaving the orphanage,'' Southworth said.
So young, yet he already knows the game!
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