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January 4, 2005
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
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By Joseph Giordono,
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
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| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) An Iraqi boy gives freshly-baked
flatbread to Spc. Acisclo Melendez of Company A, 1st Battalion,
69th Infantry. |
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 |
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| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) 2nd Lt. Dan Hover, of Company
A, 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, gives a blanket to
a family in Hora al Bosh, Iraq. |
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| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) Members of the 1st Platoon,
Company A, 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, sweep a field
where they suspect a weapons cache might be buried. |
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HORA AL BOSH, Iraq
— Sometimes, it’s the soldiers who give out the gifts. Sometimes,
it’s the soldiers who get them.
As a regular part of their patrols in the areas around Taji, the
National Guard soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment
have been handing out blankets and toys to children and families
in an effort to “win the hearts and minds” of people who could help
bring stability to the region.
And on days like Thursday, the soldiers are treated as welcome
guests, invited to share a quick meal and some hot tea.
During a patrol near Hora al Bosh, a small farming village largely
made up of crumbling stone and brick compounds, members of 1st Platoon,
Company A kept an eye out for danger as they tried to attend to
the community. At the beginning of the patrol, they walked through
the village streets, handing out a half-dozen thick blankets to
what appeared to be the families most in need.
“I remember this house. Let’s give one to them,” said 2nd Lt. Dan
Hover, a 31-year-old from Medina, Ohio, gesturing to a group of
young girls peering between the doors of a red metal gate.
As the soldiers moved through the streets, they gathered the customary
crowd of children, who asked for such wide-ranging items as pens,
water and money. The kids helped up younger siblings, chanting “baby!
baby!” in hopes of enticing the soldiers to give them something.
Soldiers from the battalion said Hora al Bosh is a hard town to
read: Some days, they are welcomed with smiles and waves and on
other days people stare at the patrols from behind locked gates
and fences.
After they had handed out all the blankets, the soldiers got back
into their Humvees and patrolled the surrounding area, looking for
weapons caches and possible spots for roadside bombs. As they stopped
to search a set of fallow fields, two boys approached the soldiers
and gave them freshly baked flatbread, still warm from the oven.
The boys then went back into the farmhouse, and returned with hot
tea and sugar.
As the sun went down, the soldiers set up a traffic checkpoint,
searching passing cars.
Before the platoon went out on its patrol, members were paid a
surprise visit by Maj. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, commander of the
1st Cavalry Division, which has responsibility for the areas in
and around Baghdad.
Chiarelli spent part of Thursday visiting the 1st of the 69th,
thanking soldiers, checking on their progress in the area and asking
what support they needed.
As the squad’s members lined up their Humvees to roll out, Chiarelli
wanted their input. The soldiers asked about more helmet clips for
their night vision devices, side arms for Humvee gunners and more
hand-mikes for their radios.
Chiarelli listened to the requests, promised to get answers for
the soldiers and left them with a simple but direct message about
getting complacent on their patrols: “Don’t be predictable,” he
said.
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