A Soldier's Story: Thankful to Be Home This Thanksgiving

Iowa National Guard member James Gallagher returned home this past July after spending his 24th and 25th birthdays in Iraq. Although he may be deployed a second time, for now he’s working on his EMT license and feeling "more thankful than ever before for the basics" – a private bed, an indoor toilet, clean drinking water, "a good old fashioned dinner with my family."
In this week's Just Work blog on The Huffington Post—a series presented by SEIU to give a voice to working people—he writes, "It’s been two years since I spent Thanksgiving at home, and I am feeling luckier than ever before. I am also wiser with a whole new appreciation for the gifts of life in America."