By Dave Gram, Associated Press Writer
April 4, 2008

MARSHFIELD, Vt.?ÇöArmy Spc. Clinton Holt may just get his moose permit after all. When U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., visited the soldier in Iraq and asked him what he would like, he told the congressman a moose permit would be nice. That got things moving.

On Friday, Gov. James Douglas signed into law a special moose permit lottery for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This year, five of Vermont's 1,260 moose-hunting permits will be set aside for returning veterans, and they will be allowed to apply for the regular, statewide lottery as well as the special one for them, officials said.

"I think it's wonderful," said Waneta Mahew, Holt's mother, who lives in Plainfield. "I never thought it would be passed by now."

Equally positive for her family is that Holt, 44, is due home next month from Iraq, where he has been working as a mechanic for the Army.

Holt's family, Douglas, Welch, and a handful of lawmakers gathered for the bill signing Friday afternoon at Tim's Convenience Center, a gas station and deli on the Marshfield end of Plainfield village -- a favorite hangout of Holt's.

Aside from signs for hot food and other items, the store features posters and signs devoted to Holt, a close friend of proprietors Tim and Valarie Roberts. One bears an arrow pointing east-southeast and says, "Baghdad, Iraq, 5776 mi."

Tim Roberts said he was glad to play host to the visiting dignitaries and witness the bill signing. "I thought it was a great idea. We're good friends."

When he's home, Holt does carpentry, hauls firewood, "anything to make a dollar," Roberts said. The men join friends for an annual pilgrimage each May to fishing camp in northern New Hampshire, where Holt is known as a practical joker extraordinaire.

Welch said Holt was among five Vermont soldiers with whom he had lunch during his last trip to Iraq. At the end of the meal, Welch asked the group if there was anything they thought he could do for them.

"He was very shy," the congressman recalled of Holt, but Holt let on, in a half-kidding manner, that'd he'd like to get a moose permit when he's back in Vermont.

On his return, Welch contacted Rep. Margaret Cheney, D-Norwich, a member of the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee, and the legislation was born.

Hunting is one of life's simple pleasures for many Vermonters. "It represents part of what they missed by being over there (in Iraq)," she said.

Holt's son, Josh, a sophomore at Twinfield Union High School, said his dad had bought chances in the moose permit lottery a few times in the past, so far with no luck. Now he has reason to hope that luck will change, and said he hoped to be one of two companions state law allows to go along with each permitted hunter.

"I could be backup -- that'd be pretty cool," the teenager said.