Car bomb hurts local Marine Joshua Reynolds in Iraq

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Car bomb hurts local Marine Joshua Reynolds in Iraq

He will recover from shrapnel wounds with his unit in Iraq

06/21/07
By Andrea Freygang, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

A Floyd County mom is grateful her son survived a recent car bomb attack in Iraq.

Lance Cpl. Joshua Reynolds with the U.S. Marines was sent to a Baghdad hospital with shrapnel injuries while serving in Iraq.

The Rome native was searching houses and cars with members of his unit when a car bomb exploded, sending him to the hospital with injuries to the right side of his face and the back of his head, said his mom, Lisa Reynolds.

“His staff sergeant called yesterday (Tuesday) and asked if I had heard from him, and I said no and was told he had been in an accident, and my heart fell as I asked if he was alive,” said Reynolds. “I’m just thankful he’s alive — he’s only 21. I just really want them all to come home.”

Reynolds said her son sounded good when she spoke with him, and that he would be returning to his post in Iraq to recover.

“He won’t be coming home until his deployment is up,” she said. “They don’t send them home if they’re injured unless it’s life-threatening, but he was in the hospital two days.”

Lance Cpl. Reynolds is serving his second tour of Iraq. He returned home May of last year after an eight-month tour and went back in March.

“I didn’t want him to join, but he wanted to do this since he was knee-high. He was always running in cammos and playing Marines,” said his mom. “It’s what he wanted to do, but he had to choose the worst — infantry ground unit.”

He could return home by September, his mother said.

Ellie

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Son’s return from Iraq is ‘Mother’s Day present’

05/14/06
By Alan Riquelmy, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Having her son return from Iraq is one of the best Mother’s Day gifts Lisa Reynolds could have hoped for.

Lance Cpl. Josh Reynolds, who serves out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., returned home May 2 after serving seven months in Iraq. As an infantryman, he spent his days walking in the heat of Ramadi or moving from town to town looking for insurgents.

“We’d gear up and go outside,” Reynolds said. “We’d walk around for eight hours. If something happened, we’d take care of it.”

Iraq isn’t what many may think, Reynolds said. Instead of desert as far as the eye can see, he said, he encountered a range of landscapes.

“There’s tons of fields — just high grass,” he said.

If it wasn’t 110 degrees, it was 10 degrees, making Georgia’s summers and winters pale in comparison. There is no fall or spring in Iraq, Reynolds said, and there’s hardly any rain. When it does rain, it lasts three or four days, he said.

Positive change in Iraq is something else Reynolds said he witnessed during his stay. “The level of insurgents — it’s greatly reduced,” he said. “We established a school and a hospital. They’re working on getting their own police.”

Reynolds, scheduled to return to Iraq in March, will spend the next few months training at Camp Lejeune, learning about insurgents and practicing gunfire.

He does not return to base until May 30 — giving him plenty of time to celebrate his parents’ 25th wedding anniversary Monday.

“This is the best Mother’s Day present a mother could have,” Lisa Reynolds said.

Ellie