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* .. - •. ■.... YT ■ CHRISTMAS \ ■■ 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 Missed paper policy: , For a replacement paper, call 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. -1 p.m. on Sunday - (770) 887-3126. Copyright 0 2003 Forsyth County News 11 90994 04001 ■*- - HBBRK fcj. jJBKgaH - ~ -a Wu ■ MIIMw ' S -.A - '■ xyN Y ? ’N %■ MfF• '■ wB ‘wk ■ s s\ IHBSi X-. SVfw 'r .'j ''g--. jaßß'-W 10 - ♦/" * ABk' ife JaliMwfc±-«. •*• ||k '*** Bblr -» \ •’ -A sm ffrJd Sr • ’ MWRR Y\ • - JYsY&X/vY •XwcgMß jWy FAs wO-Y--ai£ t ' 'HET' V* w Kyi . - K- I|t , ■ '? 1 > ?'■:■'■ ' ' Bl In jkfa ; 'SL IM i ! IB • s s *! W il ’ 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. —— ggr ISBBr ml.. I—————22lMßL __ 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 IHL jj't? EL ac j n ? I' \Jmb LOCAL, 1B 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