04-04-2006, 09:32 PM
Quote:An 11-year-old girl from Greenwood, Ind. has received a Purple Heart. No, she didn't earn it by getting wounded while fighting in Iraq. She was given the precious medal by a grateful soldier. Go get a box of tissues. This one is a real tearjerker.
The Indianapolis Star reports that fifth-grader Annie Hassee, along with 425 other students from Westwood Elementary School, made cards for the soldiers in Iraq. All were addressed to a "U.S.A. Soldier." In October 2004, Annie's card was randomly given to Scott Montgomery, 36, a member of the South Carolina National Guard who was served one year, first in Iraq and later in Kuwait. Injured in his right arm by a roadside bomb in Iraq, Montgomery was laid up in a military hospital in Balad, Iraq--and feeling quite sad--when he received Annie's card. So he wrote to her: "When I opened it (the envelope), I found a beautiful handmade card from you. It brought a big smile to my face to know that some young girl in Indiana took the time to send a 'good luck' card to someone she doesn't even know."
The two became pen pals, exchanging more than a dozen letters, including photos and gifts, reports The Indianapolis Star. Using red, white and blue beads, Annie made Montgomery a pin in the shape of an American flag that he attached to his combat uniform. Annie's parents and grandparents even started writing to him. Montgomery returned home in September 2005 where he is now engaged to be married and working as a motorcycle patrolman for the North Myrtle Beach Police Department. He invited Annie and her family, parents Jim and Elizabeth Hassee and Brittany, 17, and Mackenzie, 16, to visit him in Myrtle Beach so they could meet for the first time. It was during this visit over Presidents' Day weekend that Montgomery took the family to dinner, bowling and gave Annie a ride on his patrol motorcycle.
But the big surprise came later. At the end of a concert at the Alabama Theatre, Montgomery called Annie on stage. In front of 500 people, he presented her with three gifts in gratitude for her letters: a plaque, a metal statue of an eagle and his Purple Heart. The Hassees tried to give the Purple Heart back to Montgomery, but he wouldn't take it. "She really helped me get through the whole thing," he told Indianapolis Star reporter William J. Booher. "I just wanted to give her something that was from the heart."