May 10, 2007 9:17 pm US/Eastern
Presidential Honor Bittersweet For Local Family
To help with Operation Pittsburgh Pride, you can visit their Web site.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
-
-
Ron and Susan Wardezak
KDKA
President Bush comes to our area tomorrow to speak to the graduates at St. Vincent College and to honor a couple of local volunteers.
One of those volunteers has been collecting and sending necessities to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But for the organziers of Operation Pittsburgh Pride, the effort has taken a tragic turn in the past week.
Susan Wardezak got a phone call early this morning and learned her son, Jordan, who has been serving in Iraq, was injured when his Bradley armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. The explosion was so bad it blew the the armor off of it.
"In the commotion there was a sniper near the wreckage and he opened fire," Ron Wardezak, Jordan's father, tells KDKA. "Jordan took the majority of it physically by the rollover. He wasn't shot fortunately but five of the soldiers that were with him were killed in the accident. Some were shot."
Jordan's suffering from a severe concussion and he has limited vision in his right eye. It's second time he has been wounded.
Not long after Jordan's Army unit arrived in the country, Susan needed an outlet for her anxiety and started answering the soldier's small personal needs that her son would tell her about by email.
Now called Operation Pittsburgh Pride, the Wardezak's have overseen the sending of more than 2,000 boxes, which is why she will be honored by the President when he arrives tomorrow.
For a moment, Susan will have the ear of the President. But she says she won't make a personal plea.
"I don't think it's fair of me to ask the President to bring my son," she said. "I've thought about that too, okay he's been hurt twice but I don't think its fair of me to ask him to bring my son home, because there are so many other mothers out there that [...] that's what gets me they don't even get to bring their kids home."
The Wardezaks say it's too soon to know if Jordan's most recent injuries are serious enough to bring him home. In seven months, his unit has lost 20 percent of its personnel.
To help with Operation Pittsburgh Pride, you can visit their
Web site.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
