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Seasoned Vet
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December 01, 2003
Tribal ceremony honors members home from Iraq
Associated Press
PARSHALL, N.D. — Special dances, drumming, prayers and speeches honored two members of the Three Affiliated Tribes home from service in Iraq.
Army Spc. Delmar Crows Breast and North Dakota Army National Guard Spc. Kenny Gillies were recognized at the ceremony at Veterans Memorial Hall in Parshall, on the northern edge of the Fort Berthold reservation.
Crows Breast, a member of the 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kan., is recovering from wounds he received in Iraq.
He returned home to Fort Riley in October after suffering shrapnel wounds to the neck, shoulder, arm and hand when an explosive device hit a Humvee he was riding in.
Gillies is a member of the Guard’s Fargo-based 142nd Engineer Battalion.
“I know your families are very proud of you,” Mervin Packineau, a member of the tribal business council, said at the ceremony Nov. 29.
“I can recognize what these younger guys go through in Iraq. I always attend these,” said Bud Beston, 76, a World War II veteran from Parshall. “It reminds me of me and others before me. Their families are so glad to see them home.”
Organizers prepared for a crowd of up to 300 people for the honor dance, dinner and gift-giving ceremony.
“We’re honoring them … for defending our country,” Packineau said. “They come from a long line of warriors ... We’ve been protecting this country for thousands and thousands of years.”
Crows Breast’s wife, Candace, sat with the couple’s daughter, Sierra, 3, and Crows Breast’s mother, Ada White Lightning, of Parshall. Gillies’ parents, Joe and Ida Gillies, also attended.
“Thank God you’re back with us,” said Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes. “Welcome home to our two soldiers. We’re so proud of you.”
------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC ----------------------------------------------------------- 
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