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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Communities need to "invest in these soldiers"

Colorado war veteran: Communities need to "invest in these soldiers"
POSTED:05/01/2012
By Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Post

MONTROSE — Tim Kenney is almost in his element behind the counter at Toads Guide Shop. Here, bits of brightly colored fly-tying fluff fill glass bins, and a blue inflatable raft reminds customers — and Kenney — of the promise of future fly-fishing trips. Kenney had been a fishing, rafting and hunting guide and a contract trapper before he, then 41, decided to join the Army National Guard. He was tired of seeing 20-somethings disproportionately losing their lives in faraway wars. He reasoned that if he served, he might be able to keep his own children — two daughters, now 20 and 18, and two younger children — from having to go to war.

So this wiry outdoorsman reported for duty at Fort Benning with a company of fresh-faced youngsters who laughed at his love of Toby Keith's hyper-patriotic songs and who couldn't fathom Kenney's unfamiliarity with iPhones.

Physically, he was strong enough from years of rowing rough waters and tramping miles in big-game tracks to keep up with the younger soldiers, even when he volunteered for a combat unit headed to a mountainous region of Afghanistan.

A few years, several rocket-propelled-grenade hits, a blown-out disc, a torn shoulder, a shrapnel strike to the face, broken teeth and a rattled brain later, he is struggling to figure out whether he will ever be able to do what he did before he became Army Spec. Tim Kenney.
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2 comments:

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  2. I'm trying to find out more about this Welcome Home Montrose and Tim Kenny story. I'm not having much luck with finding anything on the web other than this story. If anyone has any more info on it. I'd appreciate it.

    Thanks!

    Dan

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