Family hears from wounded GI
Associated Press

KEVIL, Ky. - It was a phone call she hoped she'd never get, but Makayla Summers said she was luckier than many other soldiers' mothers.

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Summers, 22, called home this week to tell his wife and parents that he had been wounded in combat. He suffered slight facial burns when Iraqi insurgents attacked two Humvees in Ramadi, about 50 miles from Baghdad.

"It was the first call that we've had like that, but we'd rather have the phone calls than have the military walk up to our door like others have done," Makayla Summers said.

"I feel fortunate that Matthew was the least injured of all in his group."

Another Kentucky Marine, 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Justin Sims, was killed Saturday in the same region of Ramadi, his father said. Sims, who lived in Covington, died when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb during combat operations. He was among four Marines killed in that incident.

The attack that injured Summers occurred a few hours before he called his family in Ballard County in western Kentucky.

"It was a very short conversation, just that 'I'm OK, mom. We were hit,"' Makayla Summers said.

She said he indicated that four or five soldiers were burned, and another was shot in the leg while standing on a rooftop.

The family later turned on CNN to see gunfire and explosions in Ramadi.

"They showed a Humvee blowing up, and Matt said it could've been his," Makayla Summers said. "He was in a Humvee, and the one in front got hit first. He just floored it to try to rush through the fire, and then his truck got hit."

Cpl. Summers' wife, Amanda, who is pregnant with their first child, said she had been worried before her husband's call because of TV reports about fighting in Ramadi. She was relieved to hear his voice Monday and again Tuesday when he called back to reassure his family.

Ellie