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Thursday, April 13, 2006
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Blue Star Mothers honored by Iraq support group; Baxter woman accepts
Staff Writer Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson, co-chair of Minnesota Families United For Our Troops And Our Mission, was in Brainerd Wednesday to honor a state organization whose president is a Baxter resident.
Stephenson, a 23-year Marine Corps Reservist from Woodbury who served five months of duty in Iraq last year, presented a $500 check to Carol Nelson, Baxter.
Nelson founded the Brainerd chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America and now serves as president of the state organization.
Stephenson also presented Nelson with the Champion of Freedom award for the Blue Star Mothers of Minnesota chapter "for unyielding support of our armed forced and their families in the war on terror."
The Brainerd Blue Star Mothers chapter has about 20 members, one of eight chapters in the state with four more in the process of forming, said Nelson.
Stephenson, on a media tour that also stopped Wednesday in St. Cloud, Fergus Falls and Willmar, said he wanted to highlight the successes in the war in Iraq, not often covered in the mainstream media.
Those successes include 30,000 new businesses in Iraq, more than 100 independent newspapers and magazines now being published in the country and more than 3 million Iraqi cell phone subscribers, compared to none in 2003, according to Minnesota Families United.
The tour was planned in conjunction with Iraqi Liberation Week April 9-15, the three-year anniversary of the end of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, he said.
"It's a milestone on our global war on terror," said Stephenson.
Stephenson was stationed at Forward Operating Base Kalsu, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. He also appeared in the controversial series of pro-Iraq war television ads. The "Midwest Heroes" television ads supported the United States' role in Iraq and were funded by the Progress for America Voter Fund, a conservative issue advocacy organization closely linked to the George W. Bush administration.
"I feel like I'm fighting on a different front," Stephenson said now that he is back home from Iraq. "Making sure the public opinion is accurate back home."
Stephenson has family ties in the Brainerd lakes area. His uncle, John Stephenson, lives in Baxter.
For more information on the Minnesota Families United organization, visit its Web site at www.MNFamiliesUnited.com.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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