Joshua Sparling (born 1981) is a Corporal in the U.S. Army from Port Huron, Michigan, who was wounded in the War in Iraq. Since December 2005, Joshua has received significant publicity for being the victim of multiple incidents of aggression, attributed to his status as a veteran of the War in Iraq.

Injury

Joshua Sparling was injured in Iraq by an IED on November 20, 2005, and returned to the U.S. on November 24, 2005, where he underwent multiple surgeries to treat his wounds, including severe injuries to his right leg. According to a letter written by Sparling's father, on the day he arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Sparling received a letter from the Red Cross that turned out to be anonymous hate mail expressing the wish that the soldier reading the card would die.

Spitting incident

On 27 January 2007, at an antiwar protest at Washington DC, a protester wearing an Airborne jacket spit near him, according to the New York Times. Sparling spat back, according to the NY Times report, an allegation that Sparling denied during a Hannity and Colmes interview on the Fox News.

Supportive publicity

Sparling's experiences have been featured by numerous media outlets and weblogs supportive of the Iraq War effort. Media coverage of the death wish triggered an outpouring of over 20,000 cards and gifts to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed. Sparling was championed by Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, who gave him gifts of several movies and an iPod.[1] He has also appeared and spoken at Oliver North's "Freedom Alliance" concerts.[2] Additionally, Sparling and his parents were invited to and attended the 2006 State of the Union Address as guests of J. Dennis Hastert.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Hannity Gifts, Retrieved January 30, 2007.
  2. ↑ Freedom Alliance. Archived 2007-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved January 30, 2007.
  3. ↑ State of the Union Invite Archived 2007-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved January 30, 2007.
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