No news is good news

Monica Thomas and her mother, Cindy, are feeling “much better” now that things have calmed down in Iraq some.

Her older brother, Joe Thomas, 26, is a tank mechanic in the U.S. Army 3-7 Cavalry. The last she knew, he was just outside of Baghdad, she said.

But they haven’t heard from him, she said, and apparently no one at the base in Georgia has heard from members of the 3-7 Cavalry.

“No news is good news,” Monica said.

“We’re feeling much better now that things have calmed down,” she said. “Mom’s doing much better now.”

The family has two yellow ribbons on two trees, she said, in support of her brother and other military personnel in the war.

“I’m very proud of my brother,” she said. “I’m pleased with what he is doing over there. I’m glad the war is pretty much over and I hope that he comes home soon.”

-Donna M. Perry
Jay
Marine south of Baghdad

JAY – Shiloh Ring’s brother is doing well but is ready to come home.

Eli Ring, 29, a nuclear-biological-chemical warfare specialist with the 1st Battalion in the 10th Marines Task Force Tarawa, is located about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Shiloh said. He recently talked to their mother, Paula Ring, and his two children, Brian and Tylor. Eli’s wife, Tiffany, also a Marine, has moved into Iraq from Kuwait with her unit.

Ring’s mother drove 1,000 miles to Jacksonville, N.C., in January to take care of her grandchildren as their parents were preparing to be deployed. She’s making a name for herself down there as a grandmother in a military support group. She took some incomplete marks in her master’s divinity classes to enable the children to stay in school and keep their routine as normal as possible.

Shiloh Ring said she saw a picture on the front page of the April 21 Sun Journal that looked like her brother. She had the magnifying glass out but couldn’t tell for sure. There was no name in the caption.

Eli “is doing well, ready to come home, but doing well,” Shiloh said.

-Donna M. Perry


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