Word: mcclung
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...Freddie Mac qualify; the two government-sponsored entities cover more than half of mortgages in the U.S. In the first three weeks of the program, Freddie Mac closed about 1,000 of these refinances, though "that's a drop in the bucket compared to what's expected," says Patricia McClung, a Freddie Mac vice president in charge of new products for single-family homes. "The lenders are still putting this in place." (Read a brief history of Fannie Mae and Freddie...
...about some lunch," said McClung, popping her brown eyes wide open as she flashed me a big smile. It was an obvious effort to cheer me up, and I gratefully accepted. McClung put a cap over her straight red hair and led me to the chow hall. As we sat down to eat, she gave me an overview of the situation in Ramadi, where insurgents have control of whole swaths of the downtown area. Retaking the city, McClung explained, would not involve an assault of the kind the Marines staged against Fallujah in 2004. "We don't want to Fallujah...
...felt like an ass as a silence fell over our table. I had just offended probably the nicest person I could hope to meet in Ramadi. But before I could apologize, McClung was all sunny again, smiling and moving to the edge of her chair as she talked about her experiences in Iraq. Originally from Mission Viejo in southern California, McClung was an intense athlete with six Ironman competitions under her belt. She talked longingly of the runs she'd done along the Tigris River in Baghdad, where she was based before Ramadi. We chatted more about other small things...
...heard the news as I stood outside the patients' ward of the field hospital at Camp Ramadi five days later. Three had been killed by a roadside bomb, we were told. McClung was among them. I had seen her briefly only the day before, and we had plans to meet that afternoon. But it was very late at night when I finally saw her resting in the morgue alongside her slain comrades, Spc. Vincent Pomante and Capt. Travis Patriquin. I watched at the edge of the room as the medics unzipped the body bags one by one before stepping forward...
...know what number McClung was in the count of Americans who've died in Iraq, a figure that reached 3,000 New Year's Eve. But she was the first member of the military I've personally known, if only briefly, who's been killed. The shock and sadness I felt upon seeing her dead is nothing more than a splinter of pain compared to what those who loved her must now feel. Still, the moment allowed me to begin to grasp the depth of anguish felt now by so many Americans and Iraqis who've lost loved ones...