It’s a late evening on Dec. 29, and after reading the front page article about Lonnie Williams, U.S. Army captain, wounded in a terrorist attack on Dec. 21 in Mosul, Iraq I feel compelled, if not duty bound to make a few comments.

Lonnie graduated from Ilwaco High School in 1987, just a few months after we moved to the Peninsula from North Idaho and my son, Benjamin, started attending Ilwaco as a sixth grader. I’ve never met Lonnie; however, his father Joe Williams, was one of Ben’s teachers and also his cross-country and track coach. Joe, our family is praying for Lonnie’s speedy recovery from his injuries, along with an end, somehow, to the conflict in Iraq. You have our most sincere thanks, Lonnie, for the job you’ve done and will, I’m sure continue to do.

After serving eight years as a Navy Hospital corpsman and x-ray technician, Ben has been attending school at Valdosta State University in Georgia during which time his wife, Helen, has been an active duty Air Force lieutenant at Moody Air Force base. In a few weeks Ben will be reporting for duty at the Navy Fleet Hospital in Kuwait where he’ll be helping to relieve some of our military personnel who have been there far too long. While his wife and parents will miss him and worry about his safety, the ones who will suffer the most are Madelaine and Kaylie, Ben’s two young daughters. This is where the war really starts to hit home isn’t it?

After several months of listening to political ranting, raving and rabid slobbering from both the left and right, all I can say is that our president, whether he had our vote or not, is going to need all the prayers and encouragement we can provide in order to fix the mess we’re tangled up in now. It isn’t about politics anymore, it’s about sanity. The last time we got into something like this our country lost over 58,000 of its finest and best future; unfortunately, the good old U.S. of A. is well on its way to the same, bleak outcome … do we really want to send our sons and daughters there again?

Ralph Warner

Surfside