Newspaper Page Text
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CHRISTMAS
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Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paper" Since 1908 J
Vol. 94, No. 206
‘7 joined the Army to go to war. I gt
The holiday traveler
Forsyth soldier goes back to Iraq on this Christmas morning
By Harris Blackwood
Community Editor
As many Forsyth Countians are
opening presents this Christmas
morning, Army Specialist Neal
Gibby will be on board a commercial
jetliner for a return trip to a place
that has been his home for most of
this year lraq.
When Gibby, 22, entered Iraq
with the 173rd Airborne on March
26, he did not realize that he would
be there for the next nine months.
His unit entered the country from
the north and helped to secure an air
field at Irbil. The unit then moved
south and was heavily involved in the
April 11 raid on Kirkuk, also secur
ing an airfield there.
In the months following that bat
tle, Gibby has been all over the
nation of Iraq.
“When we first got there, we
were always on the move and push
ing south; now we are more set into a
place, staying there for a month at a
time,” said Gibby.
“At first, we would sleep on the
ground or in a truck, if you had a
truck. Then when we got to Kirkuk,
there was housing on the base and
we secured housing.
“After a month in Kirkuk, we
began expanding out our battle space
and the living conditions got better
for some and worse for others.”
He described living in Iraqi
homes made from cinder blocks that
were not cemented together. The
spartan housing had no windows or
doors.
Prior to leaving, his platoon was
involved in civil affairs missions,
training local Iraqi police units.
The soldier told of sporadic
attacks on his unit by the Iraqis.
“An RPG (rocket propelled
grenade) hit a fuel truck and two of
my friends were badly burned,” he
said, adding that two other friends
were killed when they were
ambushed while traveling with
another unit.
“It’s definitely different,” he said
This chicken
was found on a
road behind the
Tyson Foods
plant in
Cumming.
Some local ani
mal organiza
tions say they
occasionally
receive calls
from people
who find birds
that have fallen
off trucks
: bound for the
Tyson complex.
' Photo/Audra Perry
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Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County News
11 90994 04001
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Photo/Audra Perry
Morgan Gibby rests her head on the shoulder of her dad, Neal, left, during his holiday leave from Iraq. Also pictured are Neal’s mother
and stepfather, Carol and Bill Holley.
of being home on a two-week leave
for the holidays. “It is not really hard
for me to adjust at all. I’ve only been
in the Army two years and this is my
second real world deployment.
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INDEX
Abby 4B
Classifieds 8B
Deaths 2A
Government 5A
Horoscope 4B
Kids Page .. 5B
Opinion 19A
Sports 7B
THURSDAY December 25,2003
Local
Election panel
adds justice center
question to ballot
Page 3A
“To change from combat to sit
ting here then going back is no big
deal. It’s my job.
“I joined the Army to go to war. I
got out of it what 1 wanted, I don't
Chicken run: Tyson doesn’t keep them all
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
When does a chicken cross the
road in Cumming? Probably after
escaping from a truck bound for the
Tyson Foods plant.
On almost any given day, trucks
loaded with hundreds of chickens can
be seen making their way to the Tyson
Foods processing plant in the heart of
Cumming where the birds will
become the basic ingredients for
filets, patties, nuggets and tenders.
As the chickens are carried to their
ultimate end, they are packed into
square pallets piled high on the
flatbed of the truck. The open-air
transports rolling through town often
diffuse pungent wafts of chicken
waste in their wake.
And while the vast majority of
chickens will meet certain doom
know right now if I want to re
enlist.” he said.
The young soldier said he was
glad to hear of the capture of Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein, just a few
inside the Tyson plant, a few of the
birds successfully dodge their fate.
People find the chickens in the
roadway and sometimes drop them off
to local veterinarians or the Forsyth
County Humane Society who, in turn,
attempt to find a new home for the
birds so long as they’re healthy. If
the chicken is not well, the birds will
be euthanized by the vet.
Dr. Randy Esbeck, a veterinarian
at Sawnee Animal Clinic in
Cumming, said once or twice a year
people bring chickens to his office on
Canton Highway after finding them
near the Tyson plant.
“That’s just once or twice a year
that someone stops and brings them in
to me,” he added. “It probably hap
pens quite a bit.”
The former manager at the Forsyth
County Humane Society, Laurie
Hutchins, said she used to receive
Holiday
Forsyth kids
' write letters
to Santa
Page 7A
days after his homecoming. He
wished, however, that he could have
been there and involved in the cap-
See l/VAR, Page 2A
calls, maybe one or two a year, from
people who found chickens near the
Tyson Foods complex.
Hutchins, who now works at
Claws and Paws Pet Care in
Cumming, said she would try to find
homes for the rescued birds.
“We’re lucky we have people who
will go pick up a chicken off the side
of the road,” she said.
One such incident occurred last
Thursday morning when two women
driving behind the Tyson Foods plant
stumbled across a chicken lying in the
middle of the road.
At about 7 a.m., Charlotte Roth
and her mother, Sandra Campbell,
were returning from dropping off
breakfast at the Cumming-Forsyth
Chamber of Commerce when they
saw a chicken sitting on the double
See CHICKEN, Page 2A
Sunny
High in the upper 40s
Low in the lower 30s
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Holiday scenes
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Dec. 20 1069.32 ft
Dec. 21 1069.33 ft
Dec. 22 1069.33 ft
Dec. 23 1069.29 ft
Full 1071. ooft