LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, BALAD, Iraq, Sept. 21, 2004 — With the Iraqi school year starting soon, soldiers of the 185th Aviation Brigade, a National Guard unit from Jackson, Miss., have chosen to deliver hope and good intentions to the Iraqi children in the form of school supplies.

With the help of the brigade family readiness group and an outpouring of community support, the brigade gathered 8,000 backpacks full of notebooks, crayons, coloring books, pencils and pens for distribution to Iraqi children all over the country by the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division and 1st Marine Expeditionary Force among others.

The massive humanitarian effort the unit began when it arrived here in January.

“We made a visit out to Yathrib on a humanitarian mission we’d picked up from a previous Mississippi National Guard unit that’d been here. We dropped off some school supplies that they had,” said Lt. Col. Dane Powell, brigade executive officer.

On this mission, the soldiers noticed the lack of basic supplies and felt they had to do more. After delivering the supplies and seeing the Iraqi children’s smiling faces, the soldiers communicated their experience to their family readiness group, which then initiated Operation Open Hearts, to collect donations of supplies.

The family readiness group enlisted the sponsorship of various organizations, community groups and churches and has accumulated more than half million dollars worth of school supplies. They collected and filled the backpacks in assembly line fashion.

“I think it makes the American public feel better. It makes the communities feel like they’re involved, and it puts them in touch with the soldiers. They know they’re helping their hometown soldiers spread goodwill in Iraq,” Powell said.

They even secured the support of Federal Express, which donated the shipping costs.

“You sit back and look at the numbers, and you really realize what a monumental task they’ve done getting this many supplies here. Obviously, it makes us proud that Mississippi rallied behind us to get it over here,” Powell said.

Once the supplies made it to Logistics Support Area Anaconda, the brigade loaded the pallets onto CH-47 Chinook helicopters and delivered them to various units at forward operating bases all over Iraq. All that don’t go to the outlying forward operating bases, the brigade will distribute to schoolchildren in Balad just prior to the start of the school year.

“I think once the units get them and school is in, within a few days they’ll be pushing those supplies out,” Powell said.

The brigade's efforts serve to further the relationship between the Iraqi people and the American soldiers.

“This is a great humanitarian effort to help the kids out. We’re more a peacekeeping operation in Iraq than anything else,” said Col. Bradly MacNealy, brigade commander. “The more connection we can have with the Iraqi children and their parents, the better off America will be and the better off democracy and the future of Iraq will be.”

The brigade is working side-by-side with soldiers from 26 other states, who contributed to the school supply mission.

Editors Note: Pfc. Burton is a member of the 28th Public Affairs Detachment from Fort Lewis, Wash. She is currently deployed to Iraq in support of the 13th Corps Support Command at Logistics Support Area Anaconda.