Wash. soldier shares good news from Iraq

12:17 PM PDT on Monday, April 12, 2004

By DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News

KING Kyle Hooper and 6-year-old Musaffah.

AUBURN, Wash. - Twenty-four-year old Kyle Hooper is a local man in a distant land. The Auburn resident has been in Iraq since February of this year.

"I'm very proud of him. Very proud. And I'm happy for him. He doesn't like being there, but like my husband said, he knows he needs to be there," said Kyle's mother, Sandi.

Kyle has been calling or e-mailing his family several times a week with surprisingly positive stories.

"There's a lot of people being helped. Children are being helped, Iraqi people," he wrote.

Many of the photos he's sent show Iraqi children he's been able to treat for wounds and other injuries.

One of his favorites is 6-year-old Musaffah, who was burned so badly in an accident in his home, an Iraqi hospital had turned him away.

"So the father brought him to the medical station where Kyle is and asked if medics could work on him and they worked on him and he's walking again," said Kyle's dad, Bill.

Kyle was forthcoming in telling KING 5 News he'd been headed in the wrong direction before he enlisted, keeping bad company and in a dead end job.

Now, he hopes to turn his medic skills into a career path, one he can use during wartime or peace, in Iraq or at home.

"Now he wants to go on and actually continue and get in the medical profession and be a doctor. He loves children. I could see him being a pediatrician," said Bill.

Kyle told his parents in their last conversation the recent flare-up in violence is forcing medics to work more on troops, less on civilians.

His family says while reports of increased fighting have them nervous, they believe he is where he should right now.

Kyle is an airborne combat medic with a unit based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.