The Kansas City Star
Audrey Barbarick prayed to God for a sign — anything to let her know her son Heath, a Navy medic, was OK in Iraq.
She believes she got that sign Sunday, on the front page of The Kansas City Star.
There, in a picture shown in newspapers around the world, was the man she’s convinced is Navy medic Heath Barbarick, 27, originally from Pleasant Hill in Cass County. The man pictured was cradling a small, scared Iraqi girl in his arms.
There was no official confirmation Monday that the man in the picture was Barbarick, who was working as a medic with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Taken by a photographer for British news agency Reuters, the photo was released without names — meant more as an image of an anonymous serviceman helping an anonymous child.
According to Reuters, the photographer hurt his ankle shortly after, and was forced to leave the troops he was traveling with. That has made it difficult to track down the child-cradling serviceman.
