I will also put a kleenex warning for us softies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFF98kNg8Q
Sending the gift of music to Iraq
6-year-old sister's song for brother serving is a hit with families, soldiers
CACHE, Okla. – A big smile brightened the face of 6-year-old Heather Dawn Martin when her mother, Cindy, sat down at the piano to play their song.
Heather Dawn Martin and mother Cindy's recording of 'When Are You Coming Home?' for Spc. Shaun Martin has become a hit with other U.S. troops in Iraq.
The two have become minor celebrities for their ode to a big brother and son serving thousands of miles away in Iraq. "When Are You Coming Home?" is said to have struck a chord with American troops abroad while finding radio airplay in southwestern Oklahoma.
"From the feedback we've gotten, it's touched a lot of hearts," Mrs. Martin said.
Heather recorded the song, written by her mother, as a Christmas gift to her brother, Shaun Martin, a 22-year-old who is among 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq this holiday season. The oldest of Cindy and Bob Martin's four sons joined the Army in 2004 after a year at Cameron University.
When Heather, a precocious, blond first-grader, learned that her "biggest" brother wouldn't be home for Christmas, she gasped, then burst into tears, Mrs. Martin said.
That spurred Mrs. Martin to finish lyrics to a song she had been toying with and add the music.
In a recent call home, Spc. Martin said soldiers across Iraq were listening to it – Heather's recording of the song had been posted on YouTube, and within days, it had been viewed thousands of times.
The song found a particularly receptive audience when it was broadcast on KMGZ-FM in Lawton, a city of 100,000 that adjoins Cache and is adjacent to Fort Sill.
The recording has created demand for Heather, who sings regularly at church. She performed at the Live Nativity Trail sponsored this month by Cache First United Methodist Church and at the family Christmas party at the Goodyear manufacturing facility here. Her father is a maintenance technician at the Goodyear plant.
Heather sang "Jesus Loves Me" for her brother at church the weekend before he left for basic training. She was 4.
Spc. Martin and his counterintelligence unit went to Baghdad last summer for what's scheduled to be a yearlong tour. He's due for leave early next year, but he's not sure when.
For Heather and the rest of her family, it won't be soon enough.
"He is always so nice to me," she said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFF98kNg8Q
Sending the gift of music to Iraq
6-year-old sister's song for brother serving is a hit with families, soldiers
CACHE, Okla. – A big smile brightened the face of 6-year-old Heather Dawn Martin when her mother, Cindy, sat down at the piano to play their song.
Heather Dawn Martin and mother Cindy's recording of 'When Are You Coming Home?' for Spc. Shaun Martin has become a hit with other U.S. troops in Iraq.
The two have become minor celebrities for their ode to a big brother and son serving thousands of miles away in Iraq. "When Are You Coming Home?" is said to have struck a chord with American troops abroad while finding radio airplay in southwestern Oklahoma.
"From the feedback we've gotten, it's touched a lot of hearts," Mrs. Martin said.
Heather recorded the song, written by her mother, as a Christmas gift to her brother, Shaun Martin, a 22-year-old who is among 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq this holiday season. The oldest of Cindy and Bob Martin's four sons joined the Army in 2004 after a year at Cameron University.
When Heather, a precocious, blond first-grader, learned that her "biggest" brother wouldn't be home for Christmas, she gasped, then burst into tears, Mrs. Martin said.
That spurred Mrs. Martin to finish lyrics to a song she had been toying with and add the music.
In a recent call home, Spc. Martin said soldiers across Iraq were listening to it – Heather's recording of the song had been posted on YouTube, and within days, it had been viewed thousands of times.
The song found a particularly receptive audience when it was broadcast on KMGZ-FM in Lawton, a city of 100,000 that adjoins Cache and is adjacent to Fort Sill.
The recording has created demand for Heather, who sings regularly at church. She performed at the Live Nativity Trail sponsored this month by Cache First United Methodist Church and at the family Christmas party at the Goodyear manufacturing facility here. Her father is a maintenance technician at the Goodyear plant.
Heather sang "Jesus Loves Me" for her brother at church the weekend before he left for basic training. She was 4.
Spc. Martin and his counterintelligence unit went to Baghdad last summer for what's scheduled to be a yearlong tour. He's due for leave early next year, but he's not sure when.
For Heather and the rest of her family, it won't be soon enough.
"He is always so nice to me," she said.
![[iwojima]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/030.gif "IwoJima [iwojima]")
