Photo By Rick Emert | Pfc. Karla Hiquiana (left), Specialist Alex Teesdale (center) and Chaplain (Capt.) Ben...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Sgt. 1st Class Rick Emert
1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
TAJI, Iraq – It's a yearly tradition that 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade Soldiers would have missed out on – Girl Scout cookie season.
Instead, Girl Scout troops from the greater Austin, Texas, area sent about 650 pounds of the treats, that many crave this time of year, to the Soldiers from 4-227th stationed at Taji, Iraq.
The battalion has received about 1,100 boxes of the treats with more on the way, according to Chaplain (Capt.) Ben Clark, the chaplain for 4-227th.
"It was an outstanding effort for them to collect and put a message on all of these boxes of cookies," Clark said. "I can picture in my mind the effort that the person who put this all together had to put forth."
Clark and his chaplain assistants, Spc. Alex Teesdale and Pfc. Karla Hiquiana – both from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4-227th – separated the cookies into boxes to go to each of the battalion's companies. Each Soldier in the battalion gets two boxes, and the excess will be handed out to other Soldiers from the 1st ACB at such events as the Bunker 182 group meeting, which takes place every Sunday at Camp Taji.
Most Soldiers have picked up their boxes, and were not so patient about getting their Girl Scout cookie fix.
"I had Soldiers coming up to me for a week asking: 'When are we going to get those Girl Scout cookies?'" Teesdale said.
"People in my office have been looking forward to getting them," said Spc. Misha Argall, HHC, 4-227th. "I thought it was great they sent these; it's not something you would associate with a deployment. It's nice to know that people at home are still thinking about us."
Clark said he has received other donations, such as items to set up a coffee bar in his building, but not on a scale like this.
"Before we knew what was in them, we saw all these boxes for the chaplain, and I thought, wow, his family really does love him," Hiquiana said.
Clark is planning to send flags that will be flown over Iraq by the 1st ACB's helicopters to show his gratitude to the Texas-based Girl Scouts.
The shipment of cookies coincided with a playful request from the1st ACB commander Col. Dan Shanahan for Girl Scout cookies to be sent to his Soldiers during a live town hall meeting that he attended via the Digital Video Imagery Distribution System on Feb. 27. Clark said the troops had been preparing the cookies for shipment before Shanahan's request. But the brigade soon found itself inundated with cookies – not necessarily a bad thing.
"Who doesn't love Girl Scout cookies?" Teesdale said.
"And, who doesn't have a favorite Girl Scout cookie?" added Clark.
Certainly not Clark (Peanut Butter Patties), Hiquiana (Thin Mints), Teesdale (Thin Mints) or Argall (Caramel delights).
| Date Taken: | 04.03.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 04.03.2007 14:23 |
| Story ID: | 9756 |
| Location: | TAJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 761 |
| Downloads: | 730 |
This work, Austin Girl Scouts send morale-building cookies, by Rick Emert, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT