From Deseret News archives:
Utah's governor says his visit to Iraq 'very sobering'
Finally, he asked his mom to "say a prayer for Dad." It was a brief glimpse, Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman says, into the anxiety Utah children and wives feel every day about fathers and husbands who are serving in Iraq.
The governor spent the weekend visiting Utah troops and meeting with Iraqi officials as part of a nine-member, bi-partisan U.S. delegation led by senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis.
Huntsman turned 46 on Sunday in Iraq, spending the day in briefings, talking to soldiers and lunching with Utah Marines in Fallujah. It was the perfect birthday celebration, says his wife, even though she doubts there was a birthday cake.
"He's not the type to tell anyone" it was his birthday, Mary Kaye Huntsman said Sunday in Salt Lake City after talking on the phone with her husband.
"I know there was no place he would rather be than talking to the troops," she said. Since the governor's arrival in Iraq, he and Mary Kaye have talked on the phone at least once a day and have also text messaged each other — "we both learned how last week," she said.
The delegation, made up of six members of Congress and three governors, met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq. The group spent Sunday night in Jordan, according to Neil Ashdown, Huntsman chief of staff.
Mary Kaye Huntsman said her husband text messaged her that the trip had made him even more "grateful for the freedom we have in our country." As for the first lady, she says she woke up Saturday morning "and shed a tear for the children whose fathers and mothers are in Iraq."
"I feel even stronger about supporting them, regardless of what one feels about the war," she said.
Mary Kaye Huntsman said the governor is honored to be in Iraq, and that he said it has been a "very sobering, very humbling" experience. She said he is expected back late Monday night or Tuesday, and will hold a press conference after he returns.
Others on the trip, which is sponsored by the Defense Department, are governors Bob Riley of Alabama and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; and Reps. Tom Udall, D-N.M., Mark Kirk, R-Ill, and Joe Schwartz, R-Mich.
McCain and Feingold are reported to have put pressure on Iraqi politicians to more quickly form a national unity government, saying that American patience is waning.
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com
