Battalion commander keeps promise, delivers soccer gear to Iraqi kids

Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Todd S. Desgrosseilliers, battalion commander for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, speaks to local Iraqis through a translator in Mudiq, Iraq Aug. 11. Desgrosseilliers made a promise to bring new soccer equipment to the local kids if they clean up a local trash dump. Desgrosseilliers is from Auburn, Maine and is currently serving a seven-month deployment in the Habbaniyah area under Regimental Combat Team 5.  

MUDIQ, IRAQ

08.28.2006

Courtesy Story

I Marine Expeditionary Force

MUDIQ, Iraq (Aug. 22, 2006) -- "Betio Bastards'" top officer stuck to his word.

Lt. Col. Todd S. Desgrosseilliers, battalion commander for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and his Jump Platoon Marines brought two soccer goals and armfuls of soccer balls to the kids of Mudiq Aug. 22.

"We promised to bring them, so we're going to bring them out," said Desgrosseilliers, from Auburn, Maine.

He guaranteed the sports supplies as a reward for transforming a local trash dump into a soccer field during a community assistance mission there ten days earlier.

The Iraqi children got excited about the soccer field as soon as Marines started unloading the gear. A recreation area like this is rare in an urban neighborhood such as Mudiq.

"You should have seen the kids," said Cpl. Mario O. Huerta, a 22-year-old from Dallas, who serves as platoon sergeant for Desgrosseilliers' jump team. "I was patrolling up and down the street and the whole town was happy."

Huerta said he could relate to the young soccer stars. He shares their passion for game.

"Soccer is my life," he said. "I'm a soccer player, so if someone did that for me when I was a kid, I know it would make my day."

Huerta and his cousins used to play soccer as children during Easter gatherings at a park near his childhood home.

"I would always be ready for that," he said. "I'd be ready to show off."

Iraqi children were ready to put their skills on display too. Kids were more than anxious to kick around the checker-patterned inflated ball the Marines had in hand.

Children grabbed for the "footballs," as they call it, but the Marines didn't mind.

• Date Taken: 08.28.2006
• Date Posted: 08.28.2006 15:33
• Story ID: 7577
• Location: MUDIQ, IQ