JACKSON - Soldiers in the 155th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq are soliciting help from folks back home to wage a different kind of battle - one for young hearts and minds.
Members of the team have established an adopt-a-school program that aims to link Iraqi children with students in Mississippi schools, Lt. Col. Tommy Fuller, the 155th's chaplain, told The Associated Press by satellite phone from a base in the Northern Babil province.
The 155th Brigade Combat Team is made up of 3,500 Mississippi Army National Guard soldiers from 49 communities in Mississippi. Other are from Vermont and Arkansas.
"To me, I may not be able to change the adults' ideas of the American soldier or of America, but I can reach out to these children and let them know that we love them, that we want to help them, that we are genuinely concerned about them," Fuller said. "We may not be able to change their parents, but I don't know too many parents that have much against anyone who wants to help their kids."
State Superintendent of Education Henry Johnson told Mississippi's school district superintendents in a memo that the project could help American and Iraqi children learn more about one another.
"Mississippi schools could help their adoptive school by sending school supplies and establishing a pen pal program between their students and children in Iraq," Johnson wrote. "There are hundreds of schools in the brigade's area of operation between Babil, Karbala and Najaf and all of them have great needs in the areas of facilities, equipment and supplies."
Fuller said the soldiers have already adopted several schools and have been passing out school supplies and soccer balls. The 155th hopes to adopt 20 schools.
"They'll ask you, 'Mister, can I have pen?"' Fuller said of the Iraqi children. "It just seems to be one of the greatest things to give a kid over here a pen. Would you believe that?"
This is not the first time Mississippi National Guard soldiers have taken an interest in Iraq's children.
The Jackson-based 185th Aviation Group, which returned from Iraq this past December, distributed more than $600,000 worth of school supplies during that unit's tour.
Col. Bradly MacNealy, commander of the 185th, said humanitarian efforts give American soldiers, and the people back home who donate, a sense of participation in winning the trust of the Iraqi people, which MacNealy said will help bring Americans home sooner.
"We've got to win the hearts and souls and minds of the Iraqi people," MacNealy said. "The best way to do that is through the children."
MacNealy said when the 185th first arrived in Iraq, children in the area would throw rocks at the troops. After candy, school supplies, medicine and hygiene products were distributed, the children be-gan to build friendships with soldiers. By the end of the unit's tour, MacNealy's troops were sending videos of soldiers in Iraqi classrooms passing out supplies.
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