Pilots get goodwill rolling with ball deliveries

[Admin]

Pilots get goodwill rolling with ball deliveries

By Cpl. Benjamin Cossel
122nd MPAD

CAMP TAJI , Iraq – Football inspires a love and passion around the world rivaled by few sports. As witnessed by the recent national unity and outpouring of support for the Iraqi Olympic Football team, football in Iraq is a unifying force.

Of course, in the United States , we call it soccer.

Kiowa Pilots of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division have found a unique way to deliver goodwill and foster a sense of kinship with the people of Iraq through their love of football ... or soccer. As the “Warriors” take to the air, flying their normal missions, they’ve begun dropping soccer balls from their aircraft as they fly overhead, a little thing they’ve dubbed “Operation Soccer Ball.”<br>
“It all started with the Col. (Brigade Commander Col. James McConville) and I dropping bags of candy from our Kiowa as we flew by,” explained Kiowa Pilot Chief Warrant Officer Rolf Giesler, 4th BCT.

“You couldn’t help but notice that every single soccer field we flew over was packed, and it wasn’t just kids, everyone it seemed, was out there playing soccer,” the Seattle , Wash. native said.

The constant presence of people on the fields gave McConville the idea to add to their normal candy drops.

“The ‘ole man’ says to me one day, ‘Rolf, I really think we should start dropping soccer balls out there.’ So we did,” Giesler said.

The draw of soccer has not escaped the notice of commanders within the First Team. Routinely, civil affairs and regular patrols depart the gates of their bases with the backs of their vehicles filled with soccer balls. They are adorned with the 1st Cav. Div. patch emblazoned on the ball next to a depiction of Iraq , with the Arabic words “Peace and Prosperity for a Unified Iraq.”<br>
Giesler worked with members of the Brigade’s logistics section to procure balls from the local economy. As the success of each drop became more and more apparent, the operation began growing legs, spreading to other pilots within the brigade.

“All Kiowa pilots within 1-7 (1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry) and 1-25 (1st Battalion, 25tth Aviation Regiment) now regularly try and take a dozen or so balls out whenever they fly,” he said.

To be sure, the soccer ball delivery is an add-on to the pilots’ regular missions. Opportunity and timing must come together in order for a delivery to happen.

“Right now, we’re just doing this when we can, when the opportunity presents itself and there are some rules we stick with,” Giesler explained.

The rules, he said, are fairly basic: The mission comes first; don’t put yourself in a hazardous situation; and finally, never toss a soccer ball into an area that could get someone hurt.

“You try and drop the balls in an area where the word of what we are doing will spread, usually in the more impoverished areas, where families can’t afford to buy a ball for themselves” Giesler said. “I really think we’ve started to develop a relationship between those villages we drop balls at and the Kiowas.”<br>
Giesler and other Kiowa pilots have noticed a change in people’s opinions since they began delivering soccer balls, a testament to the operations success.

“When we first started flying out here, people would put their hands over their ears, throw rocks at us or run inside afraid,” said Chief Warrant Officer Sonny Hinchman, a Worthington , Ind. native and Kiowa pilot with 4th BCT. “Now when they see the Kiowa’s coming, they run after us, looking for those soccer balls.”<br>
Even as word spreads of the soccer balls from the sky, an awkward moment from time to time presents itself.

“I remember this one time,” chuckled Hinchman, “when we came down, ready to drop a few balls and we see this kid standing off in the distance. He had his arm thingyed back to his ear, just ready to hurl a rock at us. I pulled one of the balls out and tossed it to him. The kid just stood there for a second, like he really wasn’t sure what to do, but then he dropped that rock, grabbed the ball and gave us the thumbs up. That was cool.”<br>
So far, Giesler estimates over 160 soccer balls have been dropped with a thousand procured locally and more on the way.

“After this thing took off, we started getting donations from companies back in the states,” he said. “So we got a lot of soccer balls to give out.”<br>
The deliveries have been such a success that there is talk within the brigade of making the drops a regular mission.

“The absolute best part of all this, is just seeing the looks on the kids face when they grab a ball,” Hinchman said. “It really makes you feel good.”<br>