The President Comforts a Marine Mom

This Thursday morn, Julie McPhillips will awake to the great hope that is Christmas Day. And amid her joy for the Savior born of woman in a Bethlehem stable, she will offer two prayers.

The first will be for her son, Lt. Brian McPhillips, killed in action in April 2003 as the First Marine Division fought its way into Baghdad. The other will be for the man on whose orders Lt. McPhillips was sent to Iraq: George W. Bush.

Julie McPhillips knows a side of the president that never seems to make it into the newspapers.

Lt. McPhillips would have understood

his mother would ask him to remember to pray for the Marines who stood before him in formation. Always he would respond, "I will, Mom."

Mrs. McPhillips would like him to know how grateful they are that Brian served a president who was determined, at great cost to his own popularity, to ensure that their son's sacrifice would not be in vain.