Dad tells of plans for father-son trip with Joseph Anzack

A month ago, the family of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. heard a report on the Internet that he had been killed in Iraq. When his father found out it was false, he and his son promised to go to Las Vegas together when Anzack came home at the end of this year.

But over the weekend, soldiers came to the father’s home in Torrance, Calif.

"They said that my son was missing in action," Joseph Anzack told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira...

The 20-year-old had enlisted in 2005. "He told me, ‘Dad, I couldn’t see myself bagging groceries at Ralph’s,’" Anzack said.

"It’s the American dream," the father told Vieira. "If you put the effort forth, you can do anything you want. I was just proud of him for making a choice and then sticking through it."

Father and son last spoke by telephone last Thursday. "We talked about him coming back on leave that was not going to materialize until about New Year’s and going to Vegas and just getting caught up and just living life," he said.

The false rumor about Anzack’s death last month inspired the resolve to go to Las Vegas, something they had never done together.

"It just made me realize how much unfinished business that we have and the stuff I want to do with my son. Unfinished business," he said. "Just getting to know each other and all that stuff. Share experience, strength and hope."

The young soldier had been home on leave last Thanksgiving — "a good get-together for all of us" — and his father could tell how much he appreciated being back home. When it came time to leave, "I could tell it was hard for him to go back on that plane — go back and do his job. He was dedicated to what he was doing. He gave his all the whole time."

Read the rest at MSNBC

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After false report of death three weeks ago, Joseph Anzack's family again praying for safe return