Soldiers help Baghdad citizens
Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika
133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 200 families outside Baghdad will have one more meal in their bellies after a recent humanitarian mission conducted by Coalition forces outside Sadr City, Iraq.
Maj. Deborah Yarbrough of the 445th Civil Affairs Battalion and her
team develop an Iraqi farming cooperative that Coalition forces help
implement. After checking on the seed, tractors and plows, which is
what Yarbrough calls a “long-term solution” it’s time for a quicker
fix.
The four-vehicle convoy pulled into one of the many “squatter-towns”
that have sprung up in the last 18 months. No sooner did the convoy’s
engines stop than the colorfully-clad, children drew near. Some of the
team pulled guard as a translator and two Civil Affairs Soldiers moved
to the back of the trailer attached to one of the Humvees. The trailer
was filled with brown cardboard boxes, containing two- hundred bright
yellow bags.
“It’s like a meal in a bag,” Yarbrough explained.
The packages contained canned beef, rice, flour, water, oil, sugar and tea.
“It’s not much, but it’s a token of good will. Handing-out these bags
has another benefit because we put a card in it with a number that
these people can call if they see any suspicious activity,” said
Yarbrough. “That way they don’t have to talk to us directly if they
don’t feel comfortable.”
It was useless to try and bring order to the people that had gathered
around the vehicle, although the Civil Affairs Soldiers gave it their
best effort. The line of women and children stretched out behind the
Humvee had swollen. It resembled the crowd at a heavy-metal rock
concert more than anything; women and children sometimes push each
other to get to the food. Many tried to get to the head of the line
more than once, hoping for an extra meal.
More Soldiers moved around the back of the Humvee trying to put space
between the trailer and the crowd and keep some semblance of a line.
Meanwhile, both children and adults tried to score an added bonus—the
cardboard boxes the meals had come in. When the Soldier’s had handed
out all the meals in the box, they would flatten the cardboard and toss
it to the side of the trailer. From there it’s fair game.
When asked if it was the women and children that usually approach her
team to receive the humanitarian assistance, Yarbrough replied, “Yeah,
especially when they see that we have female Soldiers. We sometimes
hand out toys too, and the kids love that. If the kid walks away
smiling then their parent is usually smiling, but we don’t hand them
out at the same time. We’ve found that it’s just too much.”
Half the bags were handed out, and the team decided to divide the day’s
load between two locations. They mounted up and moved down the road
about a half-mile. Some of the people followed Yarbrough’s team down
the dirt road through the web of electrical wires. Though the women’s
black burkas made it hard to recognize who had already received food,
the children’s faces and brightly colored clothes were easy to
recognize.
The second location mirrored the first. Women and children crowded the
back of the trailer and walked away with bright yellow bags and smiles
on their face.
“We try to involve the community as much as possible,” said Yarbrough.
“The food is local, local people put the bags together, and then we
distribute them—locally.”