Servicemembers Receive Invitations to State of Union Address - President Bush
Servicemembers
Receive Invitations to State of Union Address
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:16:00
-0600
The servicemembers were selected as special guests for the annual address to
both houses of Congress, President Bush's eighth, and the last before he leaves
office.
Servicemembers Receive Invitations to State of Union Address
By Donna
Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2008 - A Marine who lost both legs in Iraq, a
61-year-old doctor who joined the Navy after his oldest son was killed in Iraq,
a soldier and an airman wounded in Iraq, and a Marine whose unit was part of the
troop surge in Iraq's Anbar province will join first lady Laura Bush tonight
during the president's State of the Union address.
"This is a chance for the president to
remind people that it was a bold decision to send more troops into Iraq at a
time when things were so dire, and it would be a really bad decision to rashly
pull troops out at the moment," Perino said.
Troops who have served in
Iraq will be among the president's specially invited guests who sit with the
first lady during the address. They are Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard, Army Staff
Sgt. Craig Charloux, Air Force Senior Airman Diane Lopes and Staff Sgt. Andrew
Nichols. Also invited are Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bill Krissoff and Coast Guard Petty
Officer 1st Class Willard Milam.
Kinard, 25, of Spartanburg, S.C., is a
U.S. Naval Academy graduate who received his diploma from the president in 2005.
He deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11, 2006, with the 2nd Marine Division's 2nd Light
Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. Two months later, he was on a patrol when he
was struck by an improvised explosive device. He lost both of his legs, one
above the knee and the other at the hip, and received several other internal and
external injuries. Kinard was flown to the United States, where he remains on
active duty as an outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Krissoff, who joined the Navy Medical Corps in November in response to
his son's death in Iraq, also will attend the State of the Union address. His
oldest son, Marine 1st Lt. Nathan Krissoff, was serving as a counterintelligence
officer with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion when he was killed in December 2006.
Inspired by his son's dedication and commitment, the elder Krissoff
decided to join the military himself. When his recruiter initially told him it
was unlikely he'd qualify because of his age, Krissoff refused to give up. He
raised the issue during a private meeting with the commander in chief in Reno,
Nev., and soon got the waiver he needed to begin the application process. Now
commissioned in the Navy Medical Corps, Krissoff is preparing to deploy as an
orthopedist in a Forward Resuscitative Surgical System, a Level II combat
surgical team that treats injured Marines in the field.
Krissoff closed
his private practice, and he and his wife, Christine, moved to the San Diego
area, where he is assigned to 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group.
His youngest son, Marine 2nd Lt. Austin Krissoff, is stationed at nearby Camp
Pendleton, Calif.
Charloux, of Bangor, Maine, also is invited to
tonight's address. He was deployed to Muqdadiyah in Iraq's Diyala province for
14 months during 2006 and 2007, serving as a squad leader in an armored
reconnaissance squadron. In September, as Charloux led a squad into the town of
Baloor, his unit was ambushed, and he received two grenade blasts that injured
his arm, face, eyes and leg.
Despite his wounds, Charloux completed the
raid, killing eight al Qaeda operatives. He returned from Iraq in November. His
entire unit, 1st Calvary Division, returned to Fort Campbell, Ky., in January
and is not being replaced.
Lopes, of Danbury, Conn., is an outpatient at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Lopes joined the Army in 1991, transferring to
the Air Force Reserve in January 2003. She deployed to Iraq in August as a
member of a security force at Kirkuk Air Base that provides security and patrols
the base perimeter to detect and prevent physical security breaches.
One
month into her deployment, Lopes was wounded by a rocket attack on the base. She
suffered shrapnel and puncture wounds to her right arm and lower body and was
transported to Walter Reed, where she continues to receive physical and
occupational therapy.
Another Marine, Staff Sgt. Andrew Nichols, of
Klamath Falls, Ore., will be among tonight's guests. As infantry platoon
commander for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, Nichols is
responsible for his Marines' training, welfare and tactical employment. He has
served multiple tours of duty in Iraq, most recently with the 13th Marine
Expeditionary Unit in Anbar province in support of the troop surge.
Following their successful deployment, Nichols and his unit returned to
their Camp Pendleton base in November without being replaced by another U.S.
unit. Before redeploying, they turned over tactical control of their operating
area to 1st Iraqi Army Division.
Another guest tonight will be Coast
Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Willard Milam, from Phoenix. Milam is a rescue
swimmer credited with braving 40-degree waters in the Bering Sea to rescue four
people adrift on a life raft after their boat sank in February. Milam spent six
years in the Navy before entering the Coast Guard in 1992.
Other guests
tonight include Eric Whitaker, a Foreign Service officer who leads a provincial
reconstruction team in Baghdad, and Dr. Thomas "Tom" M. Stauffer, president,
chief executive officer and professor at the American University of Afghanistan
in Kabul.
Former Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala, co-chairs of the President's Commission on Care for
America's Returning Wounded Warriors, are also among tonight's specially invited
guests. The two led a bipartisan commission that conducted a comprehensive
review of the care wounded service members receive from the time they leave the
battlefield through their return to civilian life.
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