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    U.S. Soldiers visit Iraqi school

    U.S. Soldiers visit Iraqi school

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Cory Grogan | Iraqi children pose near their school with supplies that were given to them by the...... read more read more

    SCANIA, IRAQ

    11.16.2009

    Story by Spc. Cory Grogan 

    41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team

    Scania, Iraq — Oregon National Guard members, deployed in Iraq, partook in a unique mission where they were able to make a positive impact on the hearts and minds of local national children from a small village in southern Iraq. As the Soldiers brought supplies, gifts, and other resources for their school, Oct. 27, loving looks and thankfulness filled the area.

    Members of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 162 Infantry Regiment, based out of Springfield, Ore., from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team have worked with people that surround a forward operating base called Scania, to ensure local national children there are provided with an education.

    The supplies that were donated for the most recent mission came from the Tom Dearling Foundation, which provided 500 school kits with notebooks, crayons, pencils, sharpeners, pens, color markers, glue sticks and scissors.

    Scania has also donated building materials for a new school that is being built to consolidate four schools in the area into one larger school that is scheduled to be completed in spring of 2010.

    "This support package provides an entire community the possibility to begin the process of providing their own self independence and education for the next generation," said Lt. Mark Major, a Eugene, Ore., native, who is the executive officer for alpha company.

    Major said that he believes the kindness and support of the Tom Dearling Foundation will be multiplied ten-fold on the ground.

    The children at the school have been visited by soldiers on numerous Civil Military Operations said Sgt. Julie Cavinee of Crewell, Ore., an Administrative Specialist with Alpha Company.

    Civil Military Operations have made a difference around Scania where the perception of children in nearby villages has changed quite a bit since Alpha company first visited the school said Jesse Haggart, a Vancouver, Wa. Native, who is a team leader with Alpha Company. Haggart said that when Alpha Company arrived they did the SWEAT — M assessment missions to find out the village's needs were for security, water, electricity, academics and trash.

    Haggart said when they first started going on the missions the children were skeptical about the Soldiers intentions, but that they had a need for school supplies and a new school among other things.

    "We made it a point to let them know we are still here working with them, and now they know us and we have bonded," Haggart said.

    "It's great to see all the classrooms filled and the kids that remember us; it has really progressed here," Cavinee said.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 11.16.2009
    Date Posted: 11.16.2009 09:23
    Story ID: 41633
    Location: SCANIA, IQ

    Web Views: 397
    Downloads: 354

    PUBLIC DOMAIN