Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Harry Reid deserves the recognition that Las Vegas and Nevada are giving him for all of his good deeds, including the Clark County Commission’s vote to rename McCarran International Airportfor him. As a new resident of Nevada, I endorse that decision.
I first met Reid back in the fall of 1990. As a native of the Dakotas, I would probably never have encountered him, but on a tense day in the aftermath of the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein, Reid summoned me to his Senate office.
I had been a hostage taken by Saddam in Baghdad in August of 1990 while visiting Iraq. I was one of the few to escape through Jordan later that month.
Saddam was using us as bargaining chips and after escaping, I set up Coming Home, an organization established to bring the hostages home.
Reid knew of us and he had been contacted by a Nevada family with a relative being held in Baghdad. He asked if we could quietly work together to free this one citizen from Nevada. He wanted no publicity.
Working together with Reid’s continual support, we accomplished that mission. He cares!
