Oxford family supports their son overseas

OXFORD– With the ongoing war in Iraq, one local family is learning to adjust their lives with a son overseas.

Terry and Roxanna Harvey are just one local Oxford family out of a hundred thousand others nationwide that have been intimately impacted by the war in Iraq.

“The only time you ever hear about one of our boys is if they’ve been killed. It’s a shame,” said Terry Harvey.

Their son, Specialist Daniel M. Harvey, is serving in Iraq with the Army’s 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. He turned 26 Feb. 23. Dan is an Abrams M1 tank operator.

“My father was in World War II; I guess this is how it has always been. He left in November of ‘42 and was gone for three years, no cell phone, no e-mail, nothing. If you were lucky maybe you’d get a letter or a package ... at least it’s not like that today,” said Terry.

Dan arrived in Kuwait in August of 2007, and after being stationed there for a short time, he headed to Baghdad in December.

“Then in early January he was sent to Mosul to search for enemy combatants. They told him it was one of the last strongholds left,” said Terry.

The northern city of Mosul is a largely Sunni Arab city of nearly two million residents and has a significant population of Kurds.

On Jan. 28 in Mosul, five American soldiers were killed when militants ambushed a convoy with a roadside bomb and opened fire from a nearby mosque. The troops returned fire and eventually Iraqi military forces raided the mosque, but most of the gunmen had fled.