| Iraq Troops Thank Rush and EIB Audience |
|
February 2, 2007 |
|
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
|
 |
|
RUSH: This is Mark in Paso Robles, California. Nice to have you, sir, welcome.
 CALLER: Hi, Rush. I appreciate you taking my phone call. I'll get straight to the point because I actually can probably talk for quite a while, but I grew up in an environment – I’m 41 years old now and I grew up in an environment I guess you would call a generational Democratic environment, very liberal, military was not spoken highly of. Anyway, long story short, September 11 happened, I joined the military at 36 years old, got in, went overseas, was directly involved with Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, came home, saw what they were putting on the news, couldn't believe it and then about six months ago I was working my civilian job, I was out in the field and a guy had your radio program on, and for the first time I heard somebody speaking about what was going on over there truthfully. I've been listening ever since, and the last election we had, I changed my affiliation. I'm actually a registered Republican now.
RUSH: Hear, hear! Hear, hear!
CALLER: And you know what, Rush, you have just given me a level of support and confidence that before that point, I felt all alone, even though I was in the military. So I just want to thank you.
RUSH: Well, that's great to hear, and I appreciate your kind words but, you know, I hear this a lot. Don't be afraid to credit yourself here. You did the work. All you had to do was listen. Somehow we permeated your skull full of mush out there and have turned you now into a functioning cerebellum.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: But you did it. You know, let me tell you something here, Mark. I'm being entirely truthful with you here. The enthusiasm in your voice for what you've done, and we hear it from so many like you that call, are what really buck us up, particularly when you come under attack, and you are more and more. I want to take the occasion of your call to read an e-mail that I got from a subscriber at Rush 24/7. It came in at ten o'clock last night. I didn't get home from Miami 'til about 1:30, so I was up a little while looking at e-mail and news and stuff, and this just stopped me dead in my tracks. Now, I want to read this to you without pausing so that you get the full impact of this. It's going to be difficult to do, because as I am wont, I want to stop, pause for effect and really focus your attention on something, but I think to do it that way would actually lessen the impact of this. It's from a man named Christopher Rutter, and he's a sergeant in the United States Army. |
|
|
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
I am a soldier that was serving my second tour in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. May 7th of last year, my vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb; the explosion instantly severed both of my legs. I have been recovering and going through therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for almost 9-months.
Sir, I listen to your program everyday, I even try to schedule my therapy and appointments before noon, or after 1500 so I don't miss any of it. On behalf of my fellow soldiers, and myself, I would like to thank you for standing up, and bringing THE truth to Americans. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support of the ideas that are America.
Once I completed my therapy, and am medically retired from the Army, I am returning to my hometown of Clinton, Missouri. I will be running for State Representative in 2008, and hope that I can begin to bring the ideas and the morals that founded this amazing country, back to our elected officials.
Thank you for your time again sir, and please continue the amazing job. America is counting on you to continue bringing the truth to her people.
Your fellow American,
Christopher Rutter
SGT, United States Army |
|
|
 RUSH: Now, do you people realize how casually Sergeant Rutter mentions the instant severing of both of his legs from a roadside bomb? And proceeds to start thanking me and this program and the rest of the country who support the troops, and then talk about after his therapy and after he’s medically retired, he's going to get into politics. Now, back on November 16th. I'll never forget the date. I took a tour of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I went to one of the Fisher Houses on the grounds, and I didn't, obviously, meet Christopher Rutter. I'm not sure if he was there then. But I saw people with his circumstances. I saw people with severed legs up to the hip. I saw all kinds of injuries. And I saw nothing but optimism and good cheer, laughing in the therapy room, and they were laughing and they were smiling. John Kerry had been there that morning. I mentioned this.
As I had gone through the room and I'm on my way out, one of the soldiers says, “I wish you'd have been here five minutes earlier.”
I said, “Why?”
“Kerry was here.”
“Kerry?”
"Oh, I wish you would have been here.”
“Oh, I do, too. What did he say to you?”
“He didn't say anything. He just comes here to pad his résumé, get the photo-ops and so forth, but I wish he had something to me, because I would have said, 'Senator, I'm too stupid to understand what you're saying. I was a soldier. I was stuck in Iraq.'"
But I read this e-mail last night, and I just started choking up. I mean the idea of having your leg severed by a bomb in Iraq is insignificant in this man's mind in terms of his e-mail and what his future is all about. You ask yourself, “Where do we get these people? And what can we possibly ever do to repay them?” No matter the love and the acceptance, the support, the devotion, what can we actually do to repay these people? I don't think we can. But they're not even looking for that. That's the amazing thing. I had to share this with you, and this was a great opportunity with the call from Mark.
END TRANSCRIPT |
|
|
| *Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time. |
|
|
Read About Rush's Trip to Walter Reed Army Hospital...
