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December 24, 2003
Norco soldier comes home from Iraq By Blake M. Petit Christmas came early for a Norco family when Sgt. Randal Dixon of the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division came home for two weeks after nine months in Iraq. Dixon is heading back to the middle east now, but the 24-year-old Destrehan High School graduate managed to spend time with his family before going back to duty. “We’re non-stop,” Dixon said about the business of his division in Iraq. During the day Dixon may escort officers around the city or handle general missions, while at night they are sent in for patrols, raids and to flush out insurgents, a problem he hopes will be lessened after the capture of the former dictator of the country, Saddam Hussein. “It’s a big relief, maybe we won’t be working as hard,” Dixon said. While it remains to be seen what ultimate effect Hussein’s capture will have on the dissidents in the country, Dixon said he is grateful he was captured and proud that the fourth infantry, his division, was responsible for digging him out of his spider hole in Tikrit. “Maybe my co-workers found him,” Dixon said. While home, Dixon spent time with his father and mother, as well as his four-year-old daughter, Alexandra Nicole. Dixon also has two brothers, including one in the Navy currently stationed in Mississippi. One thing he was not happy to see when he got home, however, was the media portrayal of the war in Iraq. “Watching the news upsets me a lot,” he said. “I don’t see the media saying it like it is.” Dixon says that when the media runs reports saying most Iraqi citizens don’t want the United States military there, “that is by far an untrue statement.” Dixon says Iraqi citizens are pleased and grateful for their presence, often inviting them to dinner or bringing them drinks as they work in the hot sun. They are loved by the children of the country, he says. He is especially disturbed by media reports of protests in Iraq. Dixon says that 90 percent of the “protests” that show up on the news are actually demonstrations in support of a new mayor or official installed by the interim government, which is scheduled to hand over the full reigns of Iraqi rule to the people of the country next year. “The news just doesn’t say that at all,” he said.” Dixon is scheduled to come home again by the end of April, but adds that this is a tentative schedule and events could change that. Be says he is grateful for the support he and the rest of the military have received here at home, saying that he was even stopped by a state trooper who saw a bumper sticker identifying him as a soldier and who wanted to tell him they were doing good. “We like the support we’re getting from the general population,” Dixon said. “We hope they realize we need to be in that country. We’re doing a great thing for the people of that country. Be patient and let us do our job.” Blake M. Petit can be reached at BlakeP@heraldguide.com or at 758-2795, ext. 215.
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