SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) -
President Obama's announcement to withdraw troops from
Afghanistan hit home for many East Texans with loved ones serving abroad.
Dale Galyean is a Vietnam veteran whose grandson is
following in his footsteps and is now a Private First Class in Afghanistan.
"He wanted to go, he
wanted to go fight for his country, and I wished he hadn't," Galyean says
Galyean helped his
20-year-old son make the decision to join the army but he thought the war in Afghanistan
would be over.
"I didn't realize he
would go to Afghanistan this quickly."
Sanchez has been in
Afghanistan for four months.
"He's got five more
months and that's five more months of every day you can lose your life."
Galyean says President
Obama's promise to end the war by next year is just a promise, "Actions, you
know he said a lot of things in his first election but what happened?"
He believes the
United States will never win in Afghanistan, "We've done nothing but lose a lot
of young lives and I lived that in Vietnam and I don't want to see it again,
especially not with my grandson."
Galyean says, instead
of making empty promises, people in Washington need to work together.
"I just want the
country to come together. I want the Republicans and the Democrats to quit
fighting over stupid stuff and do some good for this county and get our boys
back home."
Politics aside, this
veteran says every soldier's family is facing the same reality, "We are all
hoping for the best and dreading the worst."
Galyean says he has
not heard from his grandson in more than three weeks but has been able to Skype
with him several times since his deployment to Afghanistan.
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