A sign of the times

If there was any question that things are different now than they were during Vietnam, acts like this settle the question.

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy Strebeck returned from war a year and a half ago. On Christmas Day, he may finally get his homecoming.

Cpl. Strebeck's DeSoto house burned down on May 3, 2003, just two days before he returned from his three-month tour in the Persian Gulf.

Since then, a new home has emerged atop the ashes of the old, thanks to countless donations of supplies and manpower, and Cpl. Strebeck and his wife could wake up in their new house by Christmas.

Cpl. Strebeck and his wife were living in his wife's childhood home, a 1200 square foot house built in the 1950's, and they had no insurance because they couldn't afford it.

Their new home is 3000 square feet and includes a bedroom that will soon be converted into a nursery.

Time and time again the American people prove, in deeds not words, that they support the troops and their mission.