[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 22652-22653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICAN EFFORTS TO HELP IRAQIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I have some good news after that speech. As 
we talk about Iraq and how to fund our efforts over there, I do not 
think we should forget the amazing deeds that our troops are doing 
every day. Major combat has ended, and there are still terrorists at 
work in the country, but a powerful tyrannical regime has fallen, and, 
of course, it will take time and concerted efforts before democracy can 
grow from the ash and rubble of 35 years of Saddam Hussein.
  Far from the headlines about the United States' military mission in 
Iraq, American GIs are daily making contributions to help mend Iraq 
both from the ravages of combat, but also from a decade of neglect, as 
I say, under Saddam Hussein. From the rebuilding of the hospitals to 
the delivery of school supplies and care packages, our troops have 
personally organized over 5,000 different humanitarian projects while, 
also, at the same time, trying to secure the security for Iraq. Slowly 
but surely change is coming to the people of Iraq, and it is the United 
States who is delivering that change, and someday, I believe, the world 
will realize this.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to detail a 
sampling, just a small sampling, but a few examples of projects carried 
out by our U.S. troops recently. For example, a battalion of the Army's 
101st Airborne Division is hooking up the folks back home in America 
with Iraqi villages, organizing, in typical American style, an ``adopt-
a-village'' campaign for sending care packages of school supplies, 
sports equipment, canned food, and toiletry items. So far, the 426th 
Forward Support Battalion has signed up the city of Salem, Utah, 
several Minnesota residents, and a Tennessee car dealership to help two 
villages. Perhaps others want to help today.
  An Army reservist with the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion from Green 
Bay, Wisconsin, dreamed up the ``Backpacks for Iraq'' project which 
aims to ship 2,000 donated packs filled with school supplies given by 
people in Wisconsin and elsewhere. So far the soldier has distributed 
120 packs with another semitrailer truckload on the way.
  The Combined Joint Task Force-Seven started a ``Beanies for Baghdad'' 
program which is delivering more than 7,000 stuffed animals and 1,000 
classroom school supplies packages to Baghdad neighborhoods and 
children's hospital wards.
  The Army Reserves 171st Area Support Group in Nasiriyah in southern 
Iraq collected money from the soldiers to buy stoves, refrigerators, 
fans, televisions, and kitchen tables and chairs for three orphanages 
which the troops have taken under their wing, in a city where, at the 
same time, fierce fighting rages daily in that location.
  Soldiers from the Army's 490th Civil Affairs Battalion from Abilene, 
along with others from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, have rebuilt a 
school from the ground up in a village outside Ar Ramadi, adding a new 
roof, a bathroom, water tanks, fans, windows, and chalkboards.
  The Naval Coastal Warfare sailors delivered over 200 packages of 
school supplies after a San Diego church donated $800 to ship them to 
poor children in a southern Iraq port city. On their own time, sailors 
with the Inshore Boat Unit 15 from Corpus Christi, Texas, constructed 
16 children-sized picnic tables using just scrap lumber as materials to 
do this.
  Mr. Speaker, Seabees from the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 
based in California supervised a wholesale renovation of a girls' high 
school in southern central Iraq. The school now has freshly painted 
rooms and new electrical wiring, lighting, ceiling fans, and bathrooms. 
The $72,000 needed for the project came from funds that were 
confiscated from Saddam's Baath Party.
  U.S. reservists from a Denver-based combat engineer battalion have 
adopted a small village in northern Iraq where, on their own time, they 
are building a playground and equipment and restoring the irrigation 
well system.
  Army engineers from Fort Lewis, Washington, have resurrected a water 
treatment plant in Iraq, freeing Iraqis there from the scourge of 
dysentery. And elsewhere, Mr. Speaker, American troops are volunteering 
to pick up and fix up orphanages, schools and hospitals, and even 
kicking in cash from their own pockets to buy refrigerators, stoves, 
and beds for needy Iraqis.
  So it is clear that our troops are doing more for the Iraqi people 
than was ever asked of them. Out of compassion, character, and a will 
to do what is right, our men and women abroad will make sure that the 
job gets done and that change comes finally to these long-forgotten 
people.

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