The Long Journey:---"He's in God's Army now..."

---this curly-haired, redhead kid turned into the crew-cut of a muscular Army man. "And if you knew him, you would like his sense of humor," his only sister, Rebecca Jenkins Billingsley, would tell you. "He was always so silly and he never wanted to see anybody down in the dumps. He'd just walk by you--- 'Woo hoo, smile buddy!' " But it would be on his 22nd birthday that Rebecca's brother, Rush 'Mickey' Jenkins' life would be taken away from us all when the Bradley fighting vehicle he was in ran over an improvised explosive device in Iraq.

God's given us years of happiness here
Now we must part
And as the angels come and call for you
The pains of grief tug at my heart

Fond memories I'll keep of happy ways
That on earth we trod
And when I come we will walk hand in hand
As one in heaven in the Family of God

"My heart breaks as you take 'Your Long Journey' " ... sung for us here by Alison Krause and Robert Plant in their 2007 album, 'Finding Sand'

...Bruce************

This story by Annie Johnson, a reporter for

The Roanoke Times, was reprinted from the

November 9th 2007 edition of

The Roanoke Times.

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