[Stick]

Tomorrow afternoon, the Patriot Guard Riders escorting one of Fayetteville’s finest will visit Fayetteville. Can you imagine something like this happening in 1968? In December 2007 Sgt. David Battle stepped out of the M1A1 tank that he was assigned to in Baghdad and stepped on an IED that immediately blew off his right leg and hip and the left leg just below the knee. He's also had to have his right arm amputated above the elbow but he's still breathing thanks to immediate medical attention. He was eventually sent to Walter Reed where he's more than 100 surgeries and gone through agonizing PT to get used to and able to work with his artificial leg, foot and arm. He'll have to have many more surgeries over his lifetime. He's been at WRH since Christmas Day 2007 and tomorrow will be his first time home here with his wife and three children. The Patriot Guard has rehabbed his house here so that the good Sergeant can get around inside of his home and early tomorrow afternoon this town will literally shut down and it's people will line the streets to welcome him home with his motor cycle escort which will be escorted by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department from the county line on Rt. 85 to Sgt. Battles home on McDonough Rd. not too far from the Nash Farm where the Confederates welcomed Federals back in 1864. Too bad those other Yankee’s went across the Flint River on the Fayetteville / Lanier Rd. to Jonesboro.