A hero returns home from Iraq

Richard Jetre Cope, (Rick), 23, a Corporal in the U.S. Marines Corps, Fox Company, was on the front lines storming Baghdad during the Iraq war. Rick was a fire team leader, in charge of three other Marines. ?Our job is to ground pound,? said Rick. ?At first we all wanted to get the chance to fire, when it finally came, everyone was excited. ?But when you have those close calls, or you were all excited firing, but when they finally fired back, it was kind of like, oh.

?AS THE WAR started we were driving through Iraq, and we were expecting a lot more fire at first. ?As we were going, people were walking and leaving places that were burning, they?d wave at us. All excited, yelling ?America.? ?We were thinking the people there were going to hate us. They didn?t. They were excited to see us. The further we went, all the way up to Baghdad, people liked us. ?The living conditions for them were horrible. If you go back in time in the Bible, they probably lived the same as they did.

?Little brick houses, that you would think they cooked the brick themselves out in their yard. Really bad. ?When we were driving through there, you could tell that at one point that it was a good flourishing country. You could tell by the things that they had had.

?But things were so run down and destroyed. All the money the country was suppose to be getting ended up being taken by Sadam. We saw a lot of his palaces, huge nice places.? Rick went into one of the palaces that was damaged by a bomb. ?It was nice,? said Rick.

?THE MARINE CORPS. gave us what they could to make us comfortable. It was hot. We had temperatures that were 135 degrees or more.

?You?d sweat all day long. The Marine Corps. gave us whatever they could to make our lives easier. We lived under a big soccer stadium. The concrete would adsorb the heat during the day, and you could feel the heat coming off it at night. Becky Cope, Rick?s mother, talked about his homecoming. ?The airport was awesome, wonderful as I thought and anticipated it would be. There was about 60 family members at the airport to greet Rick. We had flags, banners and posters, said Becky.

?I felt weird, and surprised at the same time,? said Rick. ?We had to wait at the airport, but when we knew it was him I ran down the corridor. I couldn?t wait any more,? said Becky. While Becky was hugging her son, family members, started chanting ?Rick, Rick, Rick.?

BECKY SAID, ?Rick is having a real hard time. He doesn?t understand how we feel. The other night, his cousin introduced Rick to someone as a hero, an American hero. I think they just do their jobs and don?t think of themselves as heroes.

?But the family and friends are proud, just so proud, that they laid their lives down, and risked their lives. Putting themselves in certain conditions. That was wonderful, it just warmed and pained my heart so much.

?We went to my daughter?s church the other day. Total strangers just wanted to stand next to Rick and shake his hand.

?Its been an emotional roller coaster as a mom to see what I wanted to see, to have him home, yet to see him so honored,? said Becky. ?There hasn?t been a day gone by, since Rick left, that someone hasn?t asked about him. So he has been gone but he was not forgotten.? Rick said, ?It was hard to see what it was like, what was going on when I got back, how big it the war was.?

WHILE IN IRAQ, Rick received letters and packages from the Onaway Brownies and Girl Scouts. ?I even got a package from a fraternity up in Sault Ste. Marie, from some sorority there,? said Rick. ?We appreciated those Girl Scouts sending cookies,? said Becky. ?So did everyone else,? said Rick. Now the Cope family can start growing the hair back on their heads. The Copes? had shaved their heads to suppo

rt Rick while he was in Iraq. Riley Cope came up with the idea, ashe wanted to do something special for his brother. Rick’s father, brothers, uncles and grandfather had ?boot camp? Marine haircuts for a constant reminder of Rick and to keep him in their minds, thoughts, and prayers.

?I appreciate all the support everyone has given me,? said Rick. Becky said, ?To have someone who just lives in your community hold your son to their heart and keep him in their thoughts and prayers just because they?re part of this town, and part of the community made a tremendous difference for Rocky, (Rick?s father), and I.

?It was like a support system we never really appreciated and we never really knew we had.?

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