My Brother the War Hero

The war in Iraq has been hard on every American. We all have different opinions on what our country should or should not do concerning the war. The one thing we should all be thankful for is our soldiers, they keep us safe not our government. I believe that American soldiers keep us so safe that a lot of us forget we are even at war. I believe there are other heroes like people in the Red Cross and a certain few journalist that put themselves in the line of fire, but our soldiers are like the big brothers that protect us from harm. We sleep safe at night because of them. Most of us know someone who has served our country in one way or another, but I have a brother who has dedicated his life to serving America. Tech Sgt. Michael S. Shropshire has many war stories from all over the world, places most of us have never heard of or knew our country had anything to do with. My brother is in the Air force, but he was moving with the Army's 3-7 Calvary Division of the 3rd Infantry as their air control during the time we were trying to get into Baghdad in 2003. When his unit reached the bridge over the Euphrates they already knew they were out numbered, but that's the way it is when you're the first group going in. My brother began coordinating the air strikes being careful to not hit our men. Once the attack started it lasted for 78 hours straight. Down in the trenches were a few hundred versus about 3000 Iraqis and there was a terrible sandstorm that showed no signs of letting up. Our soldiers were surrounded and could not retreat to the tanks. Michael's radio was shot and ammo was running out, even the commanding officer was giving up. Michael said a prayer, took out the picture of his wife and kids he kept next to his heart and went into Rambo mode. He ran through enemy fire and got to a tank where he was able to rig the radio enough to start calling in air strikes. He had to be extremely accurate because the enemy were with in ten feet of our guys. Running back through the cross fire he was on his radio and shooting people at close range. The first jets came in taking out the tanks and the heavy artillery. The bombs then started taking out the enemies soldiers and that's the night we heard the news America has taken the bridge into Baghdad. My brother was honored by the Air Force and the Army with the Silver Star of Bravery and Courage. He saved 137 of the other soldiers with him, but they never said how many he killed. This is just the skeleton of my brother's story, most has been kept top secret and has been put into the archives of the Pentagon's top war stories. My brother has been asked by the General of the Air Force to speak to the senate twice now about issues about the war. Many writers have talked to him about writing his biography, but he has important things to do like protecting our country and doesn't have time to stop and tell stories. Yet anyway.