He'll Tell It to the Mountains

Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Bari, currently deployed with 34th ID to Basra, Iraq, plans to assault multiple mountains upon his return to the United States sometime in the first quarter of calendar year 2010. First, maybe Pikes Peak in Colorado. Then, maybe Mount McKinley in Alaska. Then, maybe Mount Everest in Nepal?

Bari, a medic in the Minnesota National Guard, recently told an Army reporter that he'd gotten the rock-climbing-bug during some Duluth-area climbs in fall 2008. He'd already moved on to parts of the Appalachian Trail before his unit was deployed.
During pre-deployment training at Fort Lewis, Wash., he parlayed a 4-day pass into an assault on nearby Mount Rainier.

"There was some times during the two months we were at Fort Lewis when I thought, 'well, I wonder if I start getting up there - it'll be cold and the oxygen is a little bit less and maybe I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, and I'll hate it - and I'll change my mind,'" he says. "But that didn't happen. I knew that the more I was climbing the more I enjoyed it."

The Minnesota medic is keeping his focus during his OIF deployment. In the relatively flat confines of Contingency Operating Base (COB) Basra, the will-be climber and frequent marathoner (he thinks he's run about 20) is logging about 35-45 miles a week.

"Your leg strength: that's the power that's going to get you up the mountain," he said.

Plant a 'Heroes Tree' in Your Community

A Heroes Tree celebrates deployed soldiers, sailors, and airmen and their families by placing in the heart of a community an evergreen symbol of remembrance. Such a tree could be placed in an office or school lobby, for example. Any "tree" could also take an alternative form, such as a bulletin board or poster display placed in a prominent and public place.

The founders of the "Our Heroes Tree" initiative recommend placing at the top of the tree two U.S. flags and a yellow ribbon, the latter a long-standing symbol of fidelity and remembrance in U.S. military culture. Ornaments naming or picturing individual service members can be placed in the branches of the tree. The founders have also penned a poem that can be used during a dedication ceremony for the tree:

Our Heroes’ Tree has much to say
For families whose loved ones serve in harm’s way.

People of all ages craft my decorations,
Sharing the holidays of our great nation.

Drawing pictures and swapping stories,
They entrust my arms with family glory.

For I hold faces and places and holiday heart songs,
Each with a whisper: “Loving hearts, stay strong.”

My lights are like stars. Silent and white.
Reflecting the honor of ultimate sacrifice.

See my ribbons of yellow, ripples of love,
USA flags, and guardian angel above.

Star wish for military families, brave heroes, too,
Our Heroes’ Tree…Together with you.

While a tree seems ideally suited for the Christmas holiday season, the concept can be adapted as necessary for displays installed around New Year's Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, or other appropriate holidays; or incorporated into unit days or deployment send-off ceremonies.

Heroes Tree pictures and program starter kits can be found at: www.ourheroestree.com

Additionally, here is an Army News Service report regarding how a Fort Benning, Georgia, elementary class dedicated a Heroes Tree to send-off soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Plans call for soldiers to "un-trim" the tree upon their return in December 2010.

The Pencil is Mightier than the Sword

Cedar Rapids Army Reservist 2nd Lt. Shaela Bresnan, an art teacher at Vinton-Shellsburg schools, is currently downrange with the 649th Regional Support Group in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In addition to her administrative duties in theater, she's acting as the spearhead to an effort to supply 5,000 Afghan students and 200 teachers with school supplies.

Bresnan's mother, Rita, herself a music teacher at an Indianola elementary school, helped organize the effort back here in Iowa. The 28 December Des Moines Register reports that, the weekend before Christmas, Indianola student shipped some 300 backpacks and 18 large boxes filled with schools supplies, erasers, and chalkboards to 2nd. Lt. Bresnan in Afghanistan.

The backpack project is an outstanding example of how U.S. citizen-soliders can leverage their civilian-acquired professional experiences, along with their precious off-duty time, multiplied by the contributions of a few people back home, to make a positive and personal impact in the lives of the Afghan people.

And, in the counter-insurgency (COIN) fight, even the crustiest Old Warhorse has to admit that "doing good" is "good tactics," too. The newspaper report notes, for example, that 2nd. Lt. Bresnan's PowerPoint slides (without which today's Army admittedly could not fight) describing the project quotes Col. Haji Toor Jan, security commander of civil affairs with the Afghan National Police:

"If I had a pencil since the age of 7 instead of a weapon, my life would be much different."

For more information on the 2nd Lt. Bresnan's backpack project, contact Ken or Rita Bresnan at: 515.961.0641, rbresnan@indianola.k12.ia.us.