Son’s return to Iraq more than enough

Eddie Contilli of Hamilton says his son, Michael, who’ll be serving another tour of duty in Iraq, has sacrificed enough.

One week ago, in a seizure of love, rage and fear, Eddie Contilli told his youngest boy that he would gladly shoot him in the leg rather than watch him shipped back to Iraq for a second tour of 545 days.

Contilli just looked at his mountainous old man. “Dad,” he said, “I think I’d really be pissed if you did that.”

Father and son then locked onto each other in a fierce embrace filled with tears and laughter.

It’s a good thing George W. Bush wasn’t anywhere near Maverick Square in East Boston last Friday, because it would have taken a herd of Secret Service agents to keep Eddie Contilli from choking him like a chicken.

This ex-Boston cop had just learned the Army scoured its inactive reserve list to pull his 22-year-old son away from a job, a wife and a new baby. From a cramped office in the back of Eddie C’s, his legendary Maverick Square bar, he kept screaming into the phone.

“Why doesn’t the sonovabitch send his own two kids over there?” he railed. “Let them stop partying for 545 days and visit Baghdad for a year! Then, Bush would know what it feels like to have your heart stop everytime the doorbell rings, or wonder if you should pick up the goddamn phone.

“My two kids have already done their time. They’ve served their country . . . both of them!” Eddie said, his voice hoarse and broken. “Mikey with the 101st Airborne and Eddie Jr. with the Marines . . . both of ’em in Iraq. When the hell is enough, enough?

Read the rest at the Boston Herald