I'M FINDING THAT SOMETIMES THE BEST COVERAGE is local. Like this story.

U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Shelton of Snohomish had a bad feeling about the mission from the start.

Before he and his unit left to root out troops loyal to Saddam Hussein north of Baghdad, Shelton knelt down in the desert sand and prayed.

"My major concern is to bring every one of my soldiers home," he said in a letter to his mother, Susan Locke of Snohomish. "We're ready to handle what is thrown at us."

He was right.

Shelton, 22, was shot in the shoulder during a June 9 ambush. He ducked just before two tracer rounds shattered the windshield of the truck he was driving. Somehow, he made it to safety.

"He said, 'It's amazing, Mom, that I'm here and still alive. But all that training saved me,'" said Locke, who learned Friday that her son had been wounded.