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While Mike was serving in Baqubah during the Surge, I was serving here on the home front. One thing I found that helped me through the deployment was being as actively involved as I could be. There are many limitations. The limitations served as a springboard for creative thinking more than they deterred me from reaching out and participating. If I let barriers stop me from doing what needs to be done then my career as an Army wife and mom would have been very short lived! Military families are nothing if not resourceful!

Mike’s battalion arrived in Baqubah shortly after a few major Operations had occurred to set the stage for the Stryker soldiers to work their magic. They were placed in Diyala for the duration of the 13-months left of their 15-month deployment. They had a baptism by fire for the first two months in battle ridden Baghdad. They already paid tribute twice in front of an empty pair of boots before their main mission started. Once in Baqubah their objective was to capture or kill AQI operatives in the area who had been running the Diyala Province. They were killing, torturing and kidnapping the locals. The good news is they gained a lot of ground very quickly. The citizens in Diyala were ready to be rid of AQI and some of them even pitched in on the efforts of the military by reporting AQI linked activities.

One thing AQI did was shut down the local schools. The children were hold up in their homes (many families feared for their lives for just walking out of their own doors). Children no longer played outside, they did not go to school… they waited and hid in fear — that is until our troops came to town. After the majority of AQI was gone then the town’s streets and markets became alive again. I began reading of town meetings taking place, and elections of local officials happening from Michael Yon and other sources. With the area coming back to life, the local teachers wanted to get back to the classroom and back to the blackboards!

A couple of things happened that drew me into the project. First, during a phone call one afternoon my son told me a story. He told me that it was common for the children to come running up to the troops to ask for things. In Baghdad the children asked for candy and balls, but in Baqubah the children were asking for school supplies. They asked the troops for pens, pencils, crayons, and anything else that they could use for art and writing. One little boy melted my heart though. He came up to my son and said “Can you give me a globe of the world, please?” Of course my son chuckled and gave the little guy what he had in his pockets that he could spare. He told the little boy that he could not fit a globe of the world in his pockets, but he would see what he could find for him for another time.

Not long after that encounter the local teachers sought after the troops to see if they could help them find some school supplies. The teachers told the troops that they were interested in teaching a curriculum that is true and accurate. With that dedication to true education the troops began to call home. When I got the call I contacted a friend of mine who works at Mead. I wrote a note and the donation was tremendous! Some of the other soldiers were able to get huge donations of knitted hats, gloves (yes it get very cold in Iraq in the winter!) soccer balls, clothing, and of course school supplies. When my son came home on his leave he spent a good chunk of that time helping me with the logistics of getting more than 600 pounds of donate school supplies out of my den and into the mail to Diyala!

Shortly after my son returned to Baqubah I found online a great teacher’s resource site. I found up and bought a few dozen blow up world globes (they fit in pockets!). I told him to give them to the school, BUT he had to promise to keep one in his pocket in case he ever saw the little boy who wanted one. He never saw him again, unfortunately.

The soldiers had to stop allowing children approaching them right before the globes arrived. When Mike was in flight on his way home for leave a little boy approached a good friend of his in his unit to ask for a pencil. As soon as the boy approached the soldier a suicide bomber ran up and detonated himself, killing two soldiers and the child. After that the soldiers discouraged the children from coming around them in fear for both their and the child’s safety.

I am not leaving this story on that sad note though. Out of love and dedication to the students and to the two soldiers they lost, we persevered and showered that school with so much they didn’t know where to put it all. The soldiers were even able to pass out the gifts on Christmas Day. I can only imagine what it meant to some of those soldiers who were missing their own children. They got to go to a school and spend the day with children, and bless them with a lot of gifts.

Below are some pictures of the delivery, and there is a link to a video about the Operation. My next adventure starts soon. I am starting a project called “Operation Linus Love” where I am asking people to make special blankets for soldiers to give to Iraqi orphans. Of course there will be some special blankets for our soldiers too — to either keep or send to their own children back home.

We are at war, and God forbid we ever forget that. Our soldiers do a job that I am not capable of doing, so I feel that the very least I can do is work here to show them a tangible and supportive effort. What always amazes me is the generosity and loving outreach of the American people.

Here are a few pictures of some art work that the Iraqi children drew and had the troops send back to the Americans who helped them. The art work is very meaningful to me because it is something that came from where my loved one called home for more than a year of his life. The other great component to this is the art work is done on some of the paper and with some of the crayons we sent!

Link to Video

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