The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – When Janet Norwood of Pflugerville, Texas, wrote President Bush about her son’s death in Iraq, she had no idea she would become part of an emotional, tearful, globally televised hug – with an Iraqi woman who had recently cast her first vote.

“It was just an exchange between two moms,” Norwood said Thursday.

Safia Taleb al-Suhail, whose father was assassinated by Saddam Hussein’s secret service nearly a decade ago, hugged Norwood after President Bush paid tribute to Marine Sgt. Byron Norwood, 25, killed by a sniper in the 2004 battle for Fallujah.

“I told her our son would be so proud,” Norwood said.

“All I remember her saying is just, “Thank you, thank you,”‘ she added during a telephone interview Thursday. “There was just so much emotion at that point.”

There was also some laugher amid the tears – the dog tags Janet Norwood carried got caught with one of al-Suhail’s buttons, making it difficult to disentangle.

“All I could think of was, “You’ve got to hurry up and sit down so everyone else can sit down,”‘ Norwood said with a chuckle.

The hug is likely to be the most remembered part of the evening, though Norwood and husband William said the focus should be on their son and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

“As long as the honor is for Byron and all the Marines he served with, we’re fine,” William Norwood said. “It’s more about them than us.”

Janet Norwood wrote Bush in December, a letter the president quoted in his speech: “When Byron was home the last time, I said that I wanted to protect him like I had since he was born. He just hugged me and said, “You’ve done your job, Mom. Now it is my turn to protect you.”‘

The Norwoods said they received a call from a White House staff member asking if they would attend the State of the Union. They traveled to Washington this week at their expense.

“We had absolutely no idea who was going to be in that box,” Norwood said.

She said she had watched news of the Iraqi elections and “was amazed people would go out in such great numbers under threat of death.”

“If I could have gone through that TV screen and hugged those people on Sunday, I would have done that,” Norwood said, adding that al-Suhail served as a kind of proxy for those feelings.

After the speech, she spoke with Bush backstage. She gave him a set of prayer beads her son had received in Iraq.

“It was extremely touching,” Norwood said. “I cried on his shoulder. It was quite amazing.”

Both Norwood and her husband normally wear sets of Byron’s dog tags around their necks. For the State of the Union, Norwood carried her tags in her hand because “they did not go with my pearls.”

The last day or so, which included an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” has been somewhat chaotic, but manageable, the Norwoods said.

Norwood wanted to correct one news report – she did not give her dog tags to al-Suhail.

“I will never part with those dog tags,” she said. “Byron was wearing them when he died.”

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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): STATEOFUNION

AP-NY-02-03-05 1933EST

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