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JD Vance's hometown of Middletown, Ohio, was built by steel industry: What to know about it
Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, returned to Middletown, Ohio, on Monday as the senator’s hometown sits at the crossroads of the heartland crisis that has shaped American politics in recent decades.
“This town was so good to me,” the GOP senator said during a rally at Middletown High School in Ohio, from which he graduated in 2003.
“I came from Middletown, Ohio. I’m proud of it,” he said, “and I’ll never forget where I came from.”
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Middletown has been a heavy-industry hub since the first steelmaker arrived in 1900. Recent history and discussions with local residents paint the picture of a Middle American community that appears to have survived Rust Belt decay better than most.
Yet Middletown also faces the challenges of a post-industrial small town and rural America that has felt ignored by Washington, D.C. elites for decades.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a campaign rally with his wife Usha Vance at Middletown High School on July 22, 2024, in Middletown, Ohio. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Even with a steel-mill anchor, Middletown trails the nation in several measures of success and opportunity.
Simmering discontent fueled by similar situations has fomented the political upheaval captured by Trump’s Make America Great Again revolution.
“Middletown is a working, blue-collar community more than anything,” Zachary Johnson, a clerk at Central Pastry, told Fox News Digital on Monday.
“I came from Middletown, Ohio. I’m proud of it, and I’ll never forget where I came from.”
Vance shouted out Central Pastry, a 75-year-old family-owned local landmark bakery, during his rally Monday.
Here’s a look at the city “that made” Vance.
Middletown is a classic Rust Belt, steel-making city
Steelmaker Armco arrived in Middletown in 1900, giving the city of 51,000 residents today its industrial heartland identity.
“We are a town that has a rich history in steel manufacturing,” Middletown communications director Clayton Castle told Fox News Digital.
Armco later became AK Steel.
A mound of coking coal sits piled near the blast furnace at the AK Steel Holding Corp. mill in Middletown, Ohio, in 2016. AK Steel was acquired by Cleveland-Cliffs in 2020. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It was acquired in 2020 by Cleveland-Cliffs, which touts itself online as the “largest flat-rolled steel company in North America and a leading supplier of automotive-grade steel.”
It operates Middletown Works, which is the largest employer in the city, said Castle.
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The city spokesperson added, “Most people, when you ask them — they work themselves or know somebody who works or worked in a steel factory at some point. Steel is ingrained in the fabric of our community.”
Vance’s own grandfather found work at Armco.
Middletown highlights Ohio’s clout as political bell cow
Ohioans voted for the winning candidate in every presidential election from 1964 to 2016.
The streak ended in 2020, when Trump earned a sizable 53% to 45% victory in Ohio over national winner Joe Biden.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance (Fox News)
Middletown represents the complex mix of cultures and urban-rural contrasts that make Ohio an important bellwether of American political trends and a top prize in presidential politics.
It’s located 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati and 20 miles southwest of Dayton.
The city developed along the east bank of the Great Miami River; the west bank remains almost completely rural.
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Interstate 75, which connects Miami, Florida, to Detroit, Michigan, before finally ending on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, passes just east of downtown Middletown.
Middletown is MAGA country
Middletown is located in Butler County, which broke even heavier for Trump in 2020 than did wider Ohio.
More than 61% of voters in the county pulled the lever for Trump in the last presidential election, compared with just 37% voting for Biden.
Guests attend a campaign rally hosted by Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio at Middletown High School on July 22, 2024, in Middletown, Ohio. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Local steelmaker plans $1.8B investment in Middletown, with federal aid
The conundrum caused by the ever-growing role of government and environmental regulations in big business is evident in a recent announcement by Cleveland-Cliffs that it’s investing $1.3 billion in its Middletown foundry – with an additional $500 million from the Department of Energy.
“This investment will secure 2,500 jobs at Middletown Works, where the unionized workforce is represented by the International Association of Machinists,” the Journal-News of Butler County reported in March.
“This is absolutely huge for the men and women who work here, and for the community,” Shawn Coffey, union president of Local 1943, told the local publication.
The investment is to “accelerate industrial decarbonization technologies” and create “substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” Cleveland-Cliffs said in a March statement.
Middletown is not the Appalachia chronicled in ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
Vance’s rise to national prominence came with the success of his 2016 autobiography and cultural critique “Hillbilly Elegy,” which offers a stark look at the struggles and fates of families and communities of rural Appalachia — including his own.
“Hillbilly Elegy” became a Ron Howard-directed movie in 2020. This past weekend it soared back into the Top 10 list of Netflix films, the result of Trump’s VP pick of Vance and the senator’s speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee late last week.
The book is based upon his family’s heritage in rural Jackson, Kentucky.
It’s about 60 miles southwest of Butcher Hollow, Kentucky — made famous as the home of country music queen and “Coal Miner’s Daughter” Loretta Lynn.
As Vance notes in his bestselling book, his great-grandparents left the hills of eastern Kentucky seeking a better life in industrial Middletown.
Jackson, Kentucky remains Vance’s ‘home’
Vance lived most of his childhood in Middletown, moving from house to house with a mother suffering from addiction.
He spent summers with his grandmother – his “Mamaw” – in Jackson, living among and observing the cultural decay of poor, rural America that became the source of “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“Hillbilly Elegy” by author JD Vance is shown on display in New York City. (Bill Tompkins/Getty Images)
He explained the complicated existence in the book.
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“My address is where I spent most of my time with my mother and sister, wherever that might be. But my home never changed: my great-grandmother’s house, in the holler, in Jackson, Kentucky.”
Vance called Middletown, Ohio ‘Middletucky’
Middletown is 200 miles north of Jackson.
But, according to Vance, the two communities are tightly connected by culture, values and small-community struggles.
“Thanks to the massive migration from the poorest regions of Appalachia to places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois, hillbilly values spread widely along with hillbilly people,” Vance wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Amy Adams and Glenn Close led the “Hillbilly Elegy” cast. The Ron Howard film based on J.D. Vance’s bestselling 2016 book of the same name was released in 2020. (Netflix)
“Indeed, Kentucky transplants and their children are so prominent in Middletown, Ohio (where I grew up) that as kids we derisively called it ‘Middletucky.’ People have struggled to get out of Jackson for decades; now they struggle to escape Middletown.”
Middletown closely mirrors America’s makeup
The city’s population is 78.4% White and 11.8% Black, compared with 75.3% and 13.7% nationally, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Middletown has a lower population of Asian, Hispanic, Native and foreign-born citizens than the United States as a whole.
Trump’s pick for vice president, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is shown arriving for the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
But its residents are more likely to be multiracial: 6.6% of Middletowners are of two or more races, compared with just 3.1% nationally.
About 21% of the city’s residents are under age 18, and 18% are over 65, almost exactly the same as national figures.
Middletown trails in higher education and income
The 2020 U.S. Census reports that 34.3% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education; in Middletown, that figure is only 16.1%.
The median household income in Middletown is $50,457, well behind the national figure of $75,149; meanwhile, 19.2% of Middletown residents live in poverty, compared with 11.5% nationwide.
Vance attends a campaign rally on March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean, File)
Middletown punches above its weight class in pro sports
The small city has produced an impressive number of hometown heroes who could “escape Middletown” through excellence in athletics.
Philadelphia Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber, UFC fighter and Olympic Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison, basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas, and Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter all were raised in Middletown.
Kayla Harrison poses prior to the UFC Hall of Fame 2024 Induction Ceremony at T-Mobile Arena on June 27, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The Middies football team plays on Cris Carter Field at Barnitz Stadium.
Brooklyn Decker, the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model and wife of retired tennis star Andy Roddick, also once called Middletown home, according to community spokesperson Castle.
‘Ugly’ donut is rumored to be Vance’s favorite local sweet
Leave it to an old-school steel city to embrace an “ugly” donut.
A signature sweet sold at Central Pastry is reportedly Vance’s favorite, according to Central Pastry’s Johnson, a lifelong Middletown resident.
The buttery, yellow-cake donut is soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside — and is coated in a sugary glaze.
Vance and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance are shown arriving for the RNC at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Vance offered a hopeful message for Middletown’s future
The candidate for vice president said on Monday that the community has plenty to offer for the future.
“While my life wasn’t all that different from a lot of people who grew up in Middletown, Ohio, it was tough, but it was surrounded by loving people, and it was surrounded by something that, if we don’t fight, is not going to be around for the next generation of kids,” he said in his remarks at his high school.
“And that’s opportunity. Middletown had an opportunity — and we’ve got to make sure it’s there for the next generation.”
“The community can wrap its arms around someone who is from here and who could possibly have a big impact on our country.”
Johnson, the clerk at locally beloved Central Pastry, echoed the message in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“There are many opportunities here and Middletown is really focused on building community,” he said.
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“You see it really coming together with sporting events and even stuff like today with J.D. Vance’s rally,” he also said.
“The community can wrap its arms around someone who is from here and who could possibly have a big impact on our country and put Middletown on the map. This could be huge for us.”
Danielle Wallace of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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Southeast
Virginia prosecutor’s record on violent offenders scrutinized after illegal immigrant charged in mom’s murder
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A prosecutor in Virginia is facing criticism after a Fairfax County Police Department officer warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal immigrant who has racked up over 30 arrests before allegedly killing a mother.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office, however, was warned several times about how dangerous Jalloh is, and dismissed many of his previous criminal charges.
Jalloh’s case is far from the only controversial actions by Descano’s office, which even includes a plea deal with a murder suspect that allows him the chance at freedom.
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Here’s a list of controversial cases handled by Descano’s office:
Abdul Jalloh
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop. (Fox 5 DC)
Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. The victim, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her upper body, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jalloh has a violent rapsheet dating back to 2014 and includes over 30 arrests with several charges dismissed by Descano’s office.
Jalloh was arrested the next day while he was allegedly trying to steal from a liquor store when an employee called 911. Officials said Jalloh came to the U.S. illegally in 2012 from Sierra Leone under the Obama administration.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020, and he was later issued a final order of removal allowing him to be deported to any country other than Sierra Leone. Despite that order, he was not deported.
A police major for the Fairfax County Police Department even warned Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano about Jalloh on at least three separate occasions, according to emails obtained by WJLA.
In one email to Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, the police major said Jalloh “is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders” that they had discussed before.
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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano speaking at an event. (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
“I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status,” the major wrote.
A Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the office “was aware of Jalloh’s criminal history and shared police concerns about potential future dangerousness. That is why our Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney personally handled these cases.”
The spokesperson added that prosecutors “will often explore many different pathways to successful prosecution, but, at the end of the day, our decisions are constrained by what testimony is available and what is legally permissible and practicable in Fairfax courts.”
Joshua Danehower
In 2022, Joshua Danehower was arrested for the murder of Gret Glyer. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In 2022, Danehower was charged with Gret Glyer’s murder. According to WUSA 9, Glyer, who owned the donation platform DonorSee, was shot 10 times as he slept next to his wife on June 24, 2022.
Prosecutors alleged Danehower killed Glyer because of an obsession with his wife. The suspect allegedly became fixated with her after a church function, and according to her family, the two had gone on a date about a decade ago.
Danehower was given a plea deal by Descano’s office, which found him not guilty by reason of insanity in February.
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Virginia law requires Danehower to be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where his status will be evaluated on an annual basis for the next five years, then every two years afterward. If he’s deemed no longer a threat to himself or others, he’d have an opportunity to be released from the psychiatric hospital.
Heather Glyer, the victim’s wife, said while on the witness stand, “I was robbed of my life partner.”
“My kids were robbed of their father,” she added.
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron pleaded guilty to lesser charges. (DHS)
In January 2025, according to a report by former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Ramos-Giron, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, choked his ex-wife during an argument and pulled out a knife.
He was charged with felony abduction by force, felony strangulation, and misdemeanor assault and battery against a family member after the incident, but Descano’s office allowed him to plead to lesser charges of misdemeanor battery and brandishing a bladed weapon.
In a statement released by Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff and Public Information Officer Laura Birnbaum, according to the report, the plea agreement “achieved the outcomes that the victim wanted.”
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However, when the victim spoke with 7News, she refuted Birnbaum’s statement, saying she didn’t agree to the plea deal.
“He’s dangerous,” she said, fearing another violent incident would happen.
“If I die, who is going to take care of them?” the victim asked, referring to her children.
Ronnie Reel
Ronnie Reel accepted a plea deal by Fairfax county prosecutors. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In July 2021, Reel was arrested on charges of sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery against a minor, according to the Fairfax County Times.
During Reel’s trial on Sept. 13, 2022, Chief Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court Penney Azcarate ruled that the Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s office had missed an evidentiary deadline, meaning confessions, including a call from Reel to a defendant’s mother where he allegedly confessed, as well as other evidence and witnesses couldn’t be used in court.
According to the outlet, that meant the case would rely on the victim’s testimony entirely.
As a result, Reel was offered a plea deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery and was sentenced to one year in prison, but was released on time served. He also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to FOX 5.
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The mother, who asked to be identified as Amber, told FOX 5 the case has had a big impact on her son.
“I was really upset. This is my child, this is my baby,” she said while crying. “And he got no justice. So he continues to see me cry and everything. He held his own, he stayed strong. He’s always trying to be strong for mom.”
“He was confessing every little detail that he did, and it was making me sick to my stomach,” she added. “It was horrible. He literally confessed to me why he did it.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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MIKE DAVIS: Virginia returns to the Confederacy with a seditious conspiracy against ICE
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Immigration enforcement is a core federal power. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the duty to write our federal immigration laws. Under Article II, the President has the duty to enforce them. States cannot meddle and certainly not obstruct. Unfortunately, many Democrat states, especially Virginia, are on a deadly collision course with the federal government.
American voters gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a broad electoral mandate to reverse the disaster the Biden-Harris border policy caused in every state in America by mass importing as many as 20 million illegal aliens, including the worst of the worst around the world.
Activist judges and other Democrat politicians and election deniers have done everything they can fathom to thwart Trump’s constitutional duty to expel these dangerous illegal aliens.
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The latest example is Virginia, which is passing a series of unconstitutional laws that would dangerously and illegally obstruct ICE. These proposals include criminal penalties, meaning that state law enforcement would attempt to arrest and jail ICE agents for simply doing their jobs.
This effort is seditious, insurrectionist, extremely dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. For the sake of the Republic, the Justice Department must immediately and aggressively quell this Virginia seditious conspiracy.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Davis Spanberger laughs aloud during a ceremony in a Virginia court in Richmond. (Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images)
Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano is the Soros puppet Democrat prosecutor in the DC suburb, an uber-wealthy Democrat enclave that is an albatross around Virginia’s neck. Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien who invaded our country in 2012. Jalloh settled in Virginia and began wreaking havoc on the good citizens there, racking up a whopping 30 arrests. These included one for rape and four charges for stabbing Americans.
Yet, thanks to the willful ineptitude of Fairfax County’s Democrat regime, Jalloh only had one felony conviction. He violated his probation, spent three months in jail and went free because of a deal between his lawyer and Descano’s office. Sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County do not notify ICE when detaining or releasing illegals like Jalloh, who had a final order of removal from 2020.
Police in Fairfax repeatedly warned Descano’s office via email that Jalloh’s release would endanger the public, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Earlier this week, Jalloh allegedly stabbed to death 41-year-old innocent mother Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate Democrat. But after her inauguration this year, she immediately showed her true leftist colors. She issued an order prohibiting cooperation between state officials and ICE.
Several anti-ICE bills await Spanberger’s signature: (1) a prohibition against ICE arrests at courthouses (where these alleged dangerous criminal illegals visit daily); (2) a prohibition against ICE arrests within 40 feet of polling places (where illegals violate federal criminal laws by voting); and (3) criminal penalties for ICE agents who wear masks (because they don’t want to get doxxed and killed).
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
If Spanberger signs these unconstitutional state laws, the Trump Justice Department should immediately sue and seek to enjoin them in court. A Virginia federal judge should issue an injunction, following the lead of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which fully stayed California’s unconstitutional prohibition against ICE agents’ use of masks.
But civil enforcement is not enough. Virginia Democrat officials plotting to arrest ICE agents for doing their jobs (seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384) — and especially those who cause the arrests (insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, assault, kidnapping, harboring, conspiracy, and more) — must go to federal prison for their serious federal felonies. If anyone gets killed in a deadly standoff between these new Virginia confederates and ICE, these Virginia Democrat officials must face felony murder charges.
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Former President Biden and his missing-in-action border czar Kamala Harris allowed millions of illegal immigrants, including the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, to pour across our borders. Trump is doing everything in his power to fulfill his broad electoral mandate and undo the damage by arresting and deporting these illegals.
Virginia’s proposed laws do not merely prohibit communication between state officials and ICE; rather, they criminalize federal law enforcement actions that are plainly within the scope of federal immigration enforcement power.
Abdul Jalloh has racked up over 30 arrests since entering the U.S., according to officials. (DHS)
States do not have to help ICE by, for instance, providing law enforcement resources to assist in ICE apprehensions of illegals. But states certainly cannot subvert or obstruct these federal efforts. This is especially true of Virginia’s attempt to arrest ICE agents in the line of duty, which could justify their use of deadly force.
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Virginia’s attempt to subvert and obstruct federal law must fail. We fought the Civil War because the Confederacy, headquartered in Virginia, sought to nullify federal law with respect to slavery. Today’s Virginia Democrats are reverting to their confederate roots.
Just as the federal government did during the Civil War and for a century after when segregationist states continued their efforts to nullify federal law, the federal government now must stand strong against Virginia’s sedition and insurrection. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes plain that federal law is supreme in areas where the federal government has authority.
If Virginia gets away with effectively nullifying federal immigration enforcement, other states can nullify any other federal law that it finds distasteful. Let’s hope Abigail Spanberger comes to her senses and vetoes this insanity. If she does not, the federal government must use all tools at its disposal, including the Insurrection Act of 1807 and other federal criminal statutes, to preserve federal law.
Virginia state officials must go to federal prison for engaging in seditious conspiracy, insurrections and other very serious federal felonies. Anything less would threaten the existence of the Republic.
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Southeast
South Carolina pastor describes evacuating members from Middle East after war broke out during Israel trip
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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – Dozens of members of a South Carolina church are finally back in the United States after Operation Epic Fury left them stranded in Israel for nearly a week after their flight was supposed to depart.
Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville landed in Israel on Feb. 20 for eight days of exploration in the Holy Land.
The group was set to fly home on Feb. 28 and had arrived at the airport three hours before their scheduled departure when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The attack prompted the closure of Israel’s airspace and the group had to evacuate the airport.
“It felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders and I just prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to give me wisdom,” said Vic Carroll, pastor at Calvary Chapel Summerville in South Carolina.
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Members of Calvary Chapel Summerville visit Al-Khazneh in Petra. (Melanie Carroll)
Carroll said the group had to shelter-in-place in Israel, going in and out of bomb shelters for several days. He then had to face the decision of the group staying or taking a bus to Jordan to have a shot at getting a flight back to the United States.
“We ultimately, you know, made the decision between what was bad and what was worse. I thought the worst would be to stay,” the pastor said.
“We were instructed that if a siren goes off while we were on the road, the bus would pull over, we would all need to get on the ground, lay on the ground face-down for at least 10 minutes until the threat was gone, and then be on our way,” he continued.
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The members of Calvary Chapel Summerville sightseeing in the Holy Land. (Melanie Carroll)
Fortunately, that did not happen and the group made it to the airport in Jordan to hop on a flight out of the Middle East Thursday morning.
Before the flight, Carroll said it was frightening, but their faith was greater than their fear.
“We’re just having to trust that we’re making the right decision, and this is our only option to get home, so we [were] just trusting in God,” he said.
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The group returned to the U.S. on Thursday night, landing at JFK in New York.
Melanie Carroll, the pastor’s wife, texted, “We are so thankful!!!!! It’s surreal!!”
Melanie and Vic Carroll while visiting The Holy Land. (Kailey Schuyler)
The unexpected extension of the trip caused the price tag to increase significantly. Melanie created a GoFundMe, writing, “The path to get us home between lodging, flights and transfers will be upwards of $2500 per person.”
The group was able to raise their goal of $100,000 in less than three days.
Melanie said the group is continuing to pray for everyone trying to get out of the Middle East.
Nearly 24,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. after fleeing the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began last week, according to the State Department.
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