PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- When Little Caesars pizza owner Mike Ilitch read about soldier Robbie Doughty's struggle after losing two legs in Iraq, it reminded him of an injury that curtailed his baseball career.Awesome! I love how Ilitch didn't just give some money and then go to Kentucky for a photo op. He gave this Vet a way to work and earn a living for himself. I think I shall have a Little Ceasars Hot And Ready pepparoni pizza tonight in celebration.
"I gave up my career after three years in the minors," Ilitch said. "I couldn't get a job when I got out. I had no training and no specific knowledge."
So Ilitch, who owns the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Red Wings, had a Little Caesars executive track down Doughty and offer him a chance to open a franchise in Paducah.
"This is the first time I've done this," Ilitch said. "It was an impulse type thing."
Ilitch learned about Doughty through a newspaper article in November, a few months after Doughty lost his legs.
"I was reading the article and I felt like I knew him after I read his quotes and how he addressed the situation he was in," Ilitch said. "He was my kind of guy. It stuck with me from the standpoint of what his life is going to be like."
On Friday, Ilitch flew to Paducah to visit Doughty, 30, of Calvert City, and his partner, Lloyd Allard, 45, of Clarksville, Tenn.
"I was shocked," said Doughty, who is now walking without help from a cane. "I was a few months from retiring (from the military) and trying to develop a plan for what I was going to do."
How not to support the troops:
FAIRFIELD, Ohio -- Two teenage boys were charged Thursday with burning 20 small American flags set up in honor of a soldier who died from injuries suffered in the Iraq war.The sad thing is that they didn't know what they were doing. They were just following along with the hip anti-war crowd. Trying to stick it to Chimpy McBUshitler and his illegal war for oil. These kids should have the book thrown at them, teach them that holding an ideological view is one thing, but disrespecting your country and it's protectors is not a game. I know, they should be made to work 12 hour shifts at Robbie Doughty's new Little Caesars for a few years. Give them a good work ethic. But then I guess it would be mean to stick Doughty with these little idiots.
Police said the boys apparently did not know the significance of the flags they took from the yard and set afire under a car belonging to the soldier's sister-in-law. The vehicle was destroyed.
