JACKSON - For security reasons, soldiers simply refer to him as Mohammad - a 7-year-old Iraqi child who was born with his bladder partly outside of his body.
For years, Mohammad dodged the children who made fun of him and his impoverished family had no hope of corrective surgery. Until that is, a group of Mississippi Army National Guard soldiers stepped in.
Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Kelly, 36, of Union, said in an e-mail from Iraq that members of the 155th Brigade Combat Team found Mohammad last week during routine sweeps in the unit's area of operations.
The 155th, which is made up of 3,500 Mississippi Guard soldiers and others from throughout the country, is attached to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force and operates in the Karbala, Najaf and Babil provinces of Iraq.
When Mohammad's father lifted the boy's gown to show the troops the child's deformity, Kelly said even hardened soldiers where horrified.
"I gagged and wanted to cry at the same time seeing the flies landing on his bladder," Kelly wrote.
Kelly took a picture to show the boy's condition to military doctors, who later visited the family and helped arrange for surgery to correct the problem.
On Sunday, Kelly and other members of the 155th went back to Mohammad's home and brought him to a base where he was loaded onto a helicopter bound for a hospital in Baghdad.
While waiting for the helicopter, soldiers gave the young boy a coloring book, toys and money.
"After 15 minutes or so, I had to get up and I happened to look down on the ground," Kelly said. "The poor little boy got so nervous and scared to get up to go to the bathroom that he had an accident in his chair and it was on the floor."
To save Mohammad from embarrassment, Kelly knocked over his own Gatorade so that it appeared the soldier had made the mess.
"The father pulled the interpreter and I to the side and told me that he never thought that there could be so much generosity, thoughtfulness, and humanity shown to someone from another country and especially since there was a war," Kelly wrote.
Lt. Col. Tim Powell, spokesman for the Mississippi Guard, said this is not the first time 155th soldiers have helped the children in Iraq. They recently treated an Iraqi police officer's three children for burns suffered during a house fire.
The unit has also developed an adopt-a-school program and is distributing school supplies.
Sgt. 1st Class Kenny Joiner told The Associated Press in an e-mail from Iraq last week that the soldiers are doing all they can to reach out to Iraqi children.
Lt. Col. Gary E. Huffman, the commander of the 2nd 114th Field Artillery Battalion out of Starkville, and others attached to the 155th, have been providing medical supplies and repairing facilities. They are working on two orphanages and a nursing home.
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