But when Ulrich, a Naval reservist, met Sa’eed last year at a reconstruction site in Iraq, their common bond as fathers resulted in a young Iraqi boy finally getting the medical attention he needs.

Sa’eed’s son Ali had been shot in the thigh when he was 5 years old during the chaos of the 1998 bombing of Baghdad. Infection had set in, and his foot had to be amputated because of gangrene. Tunisian doctors said Ali, now 11, needed an operation, but it only could be done in America.

Ulrich was working in Iraq, arranging contracts for more than $300 million in reconstruction projects. Sa’eed, a former officer in the Iraqi army, was a supervisor at one of the reconstruction sites.

“Can you help us?” the Iraqi father asked the American reservist. Ulrich said he wasn’t optimistic at first, but he told Sa'eed he would see what he could do. “I could tell that he (Sa’eed) was going to do everything he could,” Ulrich told Dallas Morning News staff writer Gretel C. Kovach. “That struck me as a father.”

Ulrich asked his wife Carmen to contact fellow St. Luke’s Episcopal Church members in Dallas as well as the Dallas physicians who treated their own son’s orthopedic problem years ago. The journey led them to Dr. Karl Rathjen, who persuaded Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children -- one of the world’s premiere hospitals for orthopedic surgery and whose services are free for Texas children -- to take Ali as a teaching case.

The Sa’eeds drove 10 hours across dangerous roads to Jordan and arrived not knowing anyone in the United States. The Ulrichs met the father and son well after midnight at Dallas Forth Worth  Airport. Carmen Ulrich placed a protective hand on Ali’s back and helped him lug his bags to her SUV with its Support Our Troops magnets.

Since their arrival, father and son have been welcomed to Dallas by the extended church family at St. Luke’s, including its active Brotherhood chapter of St. Andrew. If the Ulrichs are puzzled by the Muslim practice of multiple wives, the Sa’eeds are just as perplexed by men who wear earrings.

Ali turned out to be a bit undersized, likely the result of growing up in a war zone. But X-rays revealed that his scarred stump of an ankle had healed well enough to avoid surgery. At first, Ali’s father was disappointed. He showed doctors Ali’s uneven hips and how he tended to lurch if he tried to walk without his old prosthetic foot.

But hospital officials explained that they could do something better for Ali by fashioning a new, modern prosthesis.

“I want him to be able to play soccer,” physician Tony Herring told Sa’eed, then introduced him to a Texas teen who plays football with a prosthesis.

“I think we can really help this little guy,” Herring said. “He’ll have a lot more mobility; it will be easier to put on and will be more durable.”

When Sa’eed and his son return to Iraq, they will bring a piece of America with them, a gift from one Brother (St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas) to another.