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NAWA DISTRICT, Helmand province, Afghanistan – Sgt. Christopher Serra, a section leader with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment quick reaction force, has been through numerous firefights and answered calls for over 240 possible improvised explosive devices – hitting five of them – during his current deployment.
But because of the children he encounters in his area of operations, he still manages to keep a smile on his face.
“Their smiles are contagious,” said Serra, a native of Susquehanna, Penn. “Whenever I see them smile, I can’t help but smile, too.”
In the form of beanie babies, multi-colored animals and teddy bears, he brings a smile to the face of nearly every child he’s come across.
Serra is a part of Operation: “Gently-Used” Stuffed Animals. The operation is a venture of In Jordan’s Honor, a foundation that honors the memory of Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter.
Serra and Haerter became friends before deploying to Iraq in 2008.
“We were doing a working party at about one in the morning,” recalled Serra. “At that time, I found out my son was born, and he was the first person to congratulate me.”
According to his award citation, Haerter, then serving as a rifleman with Weapons Company, 1/9, Regimental Combat Team 1, I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), and a fellow Marine manned a sentry post at the entry control point for Joint Security Station Nasser in Ramadi, Iraq, a tank truck suddenly began to rapidly negotiate the serpentine concrete obstacles leading to the ECP.
Haerter and his fellow Marine quickly recognized the approaching vehicle as a possible a suicide bomber, driving a truck capable of carrying a large quantity of explosives and posing a major threat to the more than 50 Marines and Iraqi policemen in the station.
Ignoring the grave personal risk, Haerter and his fellow Marine opened fire, stopping the truck a few feet from their positions. At that instant the suicide bomber detonated approximately 2,000 pounds of explosives contained in the truck, leveling the ECP and mortally wounding Haerter.
Haerter was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second highest medal of valor, for his extraordinary heroism in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on that day, April 22, 2008.
“I feel privileged to honor someone who gave his life for all those people,” said Serra.
“Operation: ‘Gently-Loved’ Stuffed Animals evolved from a nice idea two boys had almost a year ago,” said JoAnn Lyles, Haerter’s mother and native of Sag Harbor, N.Y. “Aiden and Jack Cooper honor Jordan in so many nice ways.”
The two boys wanted to donate their “gently-used” stuffed animals to children in hospitals, but none of the hospitals would accept them.
“I thought of our Marines who see children every day,” said Lyles. “Jordan wrote about how many children he saw in Iraq with no parents around, in his letters home.”
“It dawned on me that we have so much and the children of war have so little,” said Lyles. “So I wrote to some wives of currently deployed 1/9 Marines, asking if their husbands could take on this project or if they knew of a Marine who could.”
“All the responses pointed to Serra,” Lyles recalled. “He accepted the responsibility after I contacted him, and Operation: 'Gently-Used' Stuffed Animals was born!”
As a QRF section leader, Serra is responsible for providing expedient support to any units in his battalion’s 340 square kilometer area of operations.
“We usually go on two to three missions a day, and I’m in that vehicle for sixteen to twenty-two hours,” said Serra. “It’s a small thing for me to stop my vehicle and hand out a stuffed animal to a kid on the road.”
Since August, Serra has received over 1000 stuffed toys in about 60 packages, from volunteers all over America. He recalls having 600 stuffed animals piled on and around his cot at one point.
“We would fill up coolers, sea-bags and boxes,” said Serra. “Then we would take them in the back of our vehicles and just hand them out to the kids that we see during our trips.”
Many of Serra’s fellow Marines and sailors are supporting the operation as well.
“We pretty much have stuffed animals in the back of our vehicles on every mission we go through,” said Staff Sgt. Mickey Lee Jaramillo, the 1/9 QRF staff non commissioned officer-in-charge, and native of Santa Cruz, Calif.
“Anywhere we went and every time we would stop, our gunners and our vehicle commanders would just hand them out to the kids they see,” added Jaramillo.
Seeing children on the road has brought more than just a smile on Serra’s face. Whenever he sees kids holding stuffed toys on the road, he knows his team has safe passage through that area.
If Serra doesn’t see their smiles on routes they’re normally present, he knows to keep his eyes peeled for trouble.
Early in the deployment, many roads in Nawa were dangerous and had little traffic due to the IED threat. Driving over the same roads now, seeing smiling children along the way, Serra is certain he helped change the district for the better.
“He goes above and beyond in everything he does… as a Marine, as a husband and as a father, he’s a great person all around,” said Jaramillo.
The “Walking Dead” has stopped receiving mail, a sign that their deployment is coming to an end. They will soon return to Camp Lejuene, N.C., when they are replaced by 2nd Bn., 6th Marines.
Serra hopes to find a volunteer from 2/6 to keep receiving packages for Operation: “Gently-Used” Stuffed Animals.
“When a kid sees a Marine with all his gear on and his weapon, getting down on a knee to give him a stuffed animal, I think it shows them that we’re here to help them out,” said Serra.
Editor’s note: First Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment is assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which heads Task Force Leatherneck. The task force serves as the ground combat element of Regional Command (Southwest) and works in partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. The unit is dedicated to securing the Afghan people, defeating insurgent forces and enabling ANSF assumption of security responsibilities within its area of operations in order to support the expansion of stability, development and legitimate governance.
| Date Taken: | 11.29.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2011 05:23 |
| Story ID: | 80878 |
| Location: | HELMAND PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 2,950 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Susquehanna Marine delivers smiles, stuffed animals to Afghan children, by SSgt Alfred V. Lopez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
