Regarding America

Army Helicopter Pilot Becomes Angel to Iraqi Family

By Daniel Hamon

Russell Hayes had served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot during Vietnam. In 2007, he was recalled by the Army for service in Iraq. Hayes, age 55, thought there was no way he would be going back to the military. But his wife Carmen told him that perhaps God had a reason for him to be sent to Iraq, so Hayes went and ended up becoming an angel to the Salman family.

Maj. Scott Southworth Adopts Disabled Iraqi Orphan

By Daniel Hamon

While deployed in Iraq in 2003, then Captain Southworth met Ala'a, a 9 year old boy who had cerebral palsy. The police had found him abandoned on a street in Baghdad six years earlier. Southworth and Ala'a met at an orphanage run by the Mother Theresa organization.

Southworth was part of the Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Military Police Company, a unit responsible for professionalizing the Baghdad Police in northeastern Baghdad. They also visited the Mother Theresa orphanage regularly during the following 10 months. During this time, Southworth and Ala’a grew close.