3 years ago
While thousands of Americans hit the highways to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends, U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall caught a flight to Iraq.
It marked the 12th time the congressman toured the war zone. This trip, Marshall toured downtown Fallujah and the West Rashid area of Baghdad.
Marshall, a Macon Democrat, talked with 13 WMAZ Thursday from the USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf.
"It's just remarkable the turnaround that's occurred in Fallujah, Ramadi and the Al Anabar Province," Marshall said. "This kind of tour by a congressman to a market in downtown Fallujah wouldn't even have been dreamed of six months or a year ago."
While touring West Rashid neighborhood in Baghdad, Marshall met with Army Capt. Mark McClellan, a 1995 graduate of Central High School and a 1999 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Marshall said McClellan commands an infantry platoon at the Black Lion Joint Security Station in West Rashid.
Marshall said he and the McClellan family attend Macon's St. Joseph Catholic Church together.
At lunchtime on the Enterprise, Marshall donned a chef's hat and served Thanksgiving dinner to sailors and Marines on the ship.
Marshall planned to travel to Afghanistan later Thursday. The congressman said he will be in a remote forward operating base and visiting a reconstruction team at undisclosed province in Afghanistan.
He's scheduled to return to the United States Sunday.
