Garland in-laws rejoice over hostage's escape in Iraq

[TexasStooge]

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

A Garland family is rejoicing after their son-in-law's daring rescue from Iraq.

Wallace and Georgia Green are Thomas Hamill's in-laws; Hamill and his wife Kellie are to be reunited in a few hours in Germany.

For almost a month, the Greens have waited by the phone, hoping and praying for good news about Hamill. Now, they hope to be re-united with their son-in-law when he returns to the U.S, saying his safe return answers their prayers.

"We went hollering and carrying on, he was free," Wallace Green said. "It was, almost ... a load we had just gotten rid of."

The Greens said they talk with their daughter Kellie daily, and her husband is like a son to them. They said he left his Mississippi dairy farm to drive fuel trucks in Iraq because the farm was in financial trouble.

Georgia recalled, "He told me, 'I have no choice, but if I can go over there and work for a year, we can make a living.'"

The reunion can't come soon enough.

"From what we understand he is in good health, so we're just expecting ... to be in Mississippi this weekend," Wallace said.

Hamill was kidnapped April 9, after he was shot in the arm when gunmen attacked the convoy he was driving in.

Sunday, he escaped when he heard some U.S. soldiers nearby and pried open a door in the small house where he was captive.

On Monday night, Wallace and Georgia Green watched the story of their son-in-law's escape.

"He looks pretty rough there," Georgia said.

The Greens are rejoicing, because they know Iraq is a dangerous place, and Hamill's ordeal could have ended very badly.

"When he called Kellie, he said 'tell our pastor and tell your daddy that from the time they have caught me until know, I have prayed,'" Wallace said.

A U.S. military spokesman in Germany said Thomas Hamill is recovering from the bullet wound to his arm, and could be returning home to the U.S. by this weekend. The Greens said they will be there.