The following story was taken from
the May 31, 2004 issue of the Daily Bulletin...
"AWOL Boy" returns to Haynes
Center a soldier
By JASON NEWELL, DAILY BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
LA VERNE - Danniel Radding's first visit to the LeRoy
Haynes Center was as an abused and unstable boy, sent against his will
to live under the agency's residential care.
On Wednesday, Army Spc. Radding came back a hero,
met with the cheers and tearful embraces of the caretakers who eventually
became like family.
 |
| Former Leroy's Boys Home resident Daniel Radding,
22, embraces Renae Williams, a staffer at the home, upon seeing
her for the first time in 6 years upon his return visit to the school.
Radding is a member of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade and has
just returned from serving in Iraq. Radding spoke to current residents
about his experiences during wartimes. (Will Lester/Daily Bulletin
Staff Photographer) |
Patriotic posters and flags welcomed Radding to the
center's gym, where children waited to honor the soldier with hand-drawn
thank-yous and a plaque commemorating his year of service in Iraq with
the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
"It was really emotional," Radding said.
"I was really touched."
Radding, 22, who spent much of his adolescence at
the center, spoke to a captivated crowd of young people about his time
in Iraq and his transformation from a troubled 12-year-old into a war
veteran.
"I joined the military because I love my country
and that flag meant more to me than my life," he told them.
During the course of the war, his life was in jeopardy
several times, he said.
Once, after his tire blew out on the road at night,
his vehicle came under fire for nearly 30 minutes until Special Forces
arrived to rescue Radding and his fellow soldiers.
On a another occasion, he lost hearing in his right
ear because of a roadside bomb - one of five that hit his vehicles during
his year in Iraq, he said.
Amid tears and bursts of applause from the admiring
crowd, he fielded questions about the longest amount of time he went
without a shower -- 45 days -- and what it was like to drive a tank.
"I can't tell you what it had inside, but it's
like playing a video game," he said, "with a whole lot more
buttons."
Radding, whose visit to the center Wednesday was his
first in two years, said he wouldn't trade the center for the world
-- which was not always the case.
When he first came to the center in 1993, Radding's
frequent escape efforts earned him the nickname, "5-minute AWOL
boy."
"He liked to run away," said Cathy Ols,
vice president of the center and director of its school. "For the
first couple of years while he was here, all he wanted to do was leave."
But over time, his attitude changed.
"I don't like LeRoy's - I love LeRoy's,"
he said. "This was my home for just about 7 years. I grew up here.
They shaped me into what I am today."
Radding leaves for a three-month deployment in Italy
next week, then will spend 3 years in the Netherlands.
After that, he will re-enlist, and eventually plans
to become a pediatrician, he said.
"Having him back is just an answer to our prayers,"
Ols said.
Jason Newell can be reached by e-mail at jason.newell@dailybulletin.com
or by phone at (909) 483-9338.
Copyright
© 2004 Los Angeles Newspaper Group