CJ Glad Bag Day and More
May 10th, 2005 by CJ
Soldiers in Iraq are using their imaginations for ways to help the Iraqi people and the country to become better. Every day they are starting programs or running programs that are thought up by soldiers themselves. They don't earn anything extra for these actions and don't benefit at all except to see the smiles what they do brings to them.
2/11 Armored Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Irwin, started a program called Glad Bag Day. On this day, the unit pays children and adults for each full bag of trash they bring in off the streets of their neighborhoods. The soldiers then dispose of the waste properly instead of it festering in the streets, the parks, and the fields. The unit pays the kids $1 for each bag brought in. Their efforts help to clean up the streets while empowing the Iraqi people to help themselves. Some soldiers are so involved with the program that they occassionally pay extra out of their pockets for the trash. One such soldier was CPL Prince, who was killed by an IED a couple of weeks ago. He would regularly pull out an extra dollar from his wallet for a child that brought him the trash. It's an inspiring story that I'm sure no one has heard of yet. But, I'm sure everyone's heard about how bad the country is.
Another project that benefits the Iraqi people nearing completion is a $500,000 water purification system being built in the Al Rasheed district of Baghdad. The project will provide fresh water for more than 100,000 villagers when it is completed in June. The great thing about it is that 30 of the 36 people involved in building the system are locals. Another town that will benefit from this system hasn't had purified water for as long as they've been a town. People with vehicles used to drive to other towns and bring back the water in buckets for their family. Families without vehicles got their water from an irrigation ditch that bred disease.
For those that aren't supporters of AAP (shame on you!), there is another program that can help soldiers to help Iraqis. The program is called Children of Baghdad and takes donations of school supplies, clothes, blankets, and hygiene products (preferrably new; no used deodorant sticks please). To date, they have collected and dissiminated 2.5 tons. 141 FA Battalion soldiers have been making this program work. Many children and adults walk the cruel desert floor without shoes and only the clothes on their backs.
A final good news story for those that think all Iraqis hate our guts and want us to die a gruesome death. Thanks to Iraqi tipsters, 3/7 Cav, the unit I went to war with at the start of OIF, uncovered a buried weapons cache in southeastern Baghdad. The buried cache consisted of 503 mortar rounds, wrapped in plastic, ranging in diameter from 60mm to 120mm. That's a lot of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that could have killed more soldiers and civilians. Let me make it clear that this was NOT a military driven find. Iraqi citizens told the soldiers where they were located. If they all hated us, there's be 503 road side bombs on the side of the road today.
The insurgency is losing its luster and attraction. The bad guys' morale is dwindling. The people are taking back their country and starting to realize who that we aren't there to kill everyone and take their oil. It reminds me of a story I may have told here before about an experience I had while I was in Al Fallujah. We had asked to talk to a home owner about some of the issues affecting his town. It was quite obvious that he didn't want us there and hated our guts. He probably would've rather just shot us in the head and drug us through the streets. Thank goodness for the Arab culture of never turning away a guest. As we talked, he kept telling us that we were there for oil. The whole war was about oil. I asked him how much oil was pumped from Al Fallujah and he said none. I rested my case by pointing to the flaw in that logic.
Can't get enough of the good news stories. I constantly touched and amazed by the goodwill of our Soldiers even in such a bleak place as Afghanistan or Iraq. Both Blackfive and Greyhawk often say "Where do we find these soldiers?" and even in the face of continuous bad news from the media you all are still there and if not in theater going to bat for those putting out the efforts. Thank you for your service.
A fantastic source for Good News out of Iraq is Arthur Chrenkoff, he has an ongoing series that is up to something like Entry 27 or 28 now.
His blog is at: chrenkoff.blogspot.com/
Winds of Change is another blogger on the good news patrol: windsofchange.net/
Another organization near and dear to my heart for several reaons that people can donate to is Operation Give operationgive.org
Founded by USA CW05 Paul Holten while he was in Iraq, Paul's relationship with FedEx allows donators to ship thier donations to the Op Give warehouse in Utah via FedEx for free.
All you have to do is go to the Operation Give web site, follow the sipping instructions and drop your package of donations off anywhere FedEx picks up, FedEx will pay the shipping.
This is a fantastic program for those who may have the items to donate, but cannot justify the expense of shipping the heavy boxes.
Operation Give started out collecting just toys, but has branched out in to providing whatever type of humanitarian releif they can. They will accept new or gently used clothing items, shoes, toys, school supplies, personal care products, and will also accept and ship items to be donated to soldiers deployed through out the world.
Paul is an amazing man, he met his wife while on a LDS mission to Korea before he joined the Army. LOL it's his wife who hooked Tyler on Sushi much to my disgust
Together they have raised a passel of kids, are active in thier community and the church, and have grown Operation Give out of thier bottomless hearts.
-a
CJ,
I want to copy your journal and send it to my local news station. I want to first ask your permission. I also want to send the link to your blog so they can read a bit more if they are so inclined.
Another question, do the soldiers use American money or Iraqi? If American, I would like to send the idea of the trash to my "kids" and put in some $1 to cover it along with the trash bags.
Thanks a ton for everything CJ….your the best.
One Bag At A Time
CJ at Soldiers Perspective tells us about a program from the 2/11 Armored Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Irwin
I am so Proud You and the other Soldiers are American. I am also Proud to say I am an American. Keep up the great work. Love to see such heart.
Thank you so much CJ for sharing these wonderful stories, seems like lately all the news in negative!!
Do you think you could consider changing careers and be a news anchorman? I would watch you everyday faithfully as long as you gave positive reports daily on what is going on with our GREAT
I'd love to be an anchorman, but then I would report what people brought to me as stories. It'd be fun though. Have you ever seen Bruce Almighty? I wouldn't need Jim Carrey (God) forcing me into babble mode. Any story I didn't like would be reported that way.
You know one thing that's bugged me for a while now. We all complain in general about the quality or lack there of from the MSM, but what are we as consumers doing to force a change in that medium?
As individuals, we cannot do a heck of a lot, but if we were all to start speaking collectively with our wallets and taking it to the corporate sponsors we might actually see some sort of effective change.
If the mass media started loosing their big dollar sponsors because people were not buying their products due to their association with the media outlet, you'd think they would be forced financially to make changes or eventually go under.
It would deffinatly be an interesting grass roots project
Angel
Excelent site. nice work.guys!