TD Foundation -

Here are emails from CPT Mario Calad, a Civil Affairs Officer in Baghdad who completed a clothing drive for more than 100 families effected by a brutal bombing in East Baghdad in July 2007:

From August 24 Email:

How are you all doing? My apology for not writing sooner. I have been actively engage on getting the list of names of all the victims on the 26Jul07 Karadah bombing. Tom, we can't thank you enough, for what you're doing back home. Our CA team here at Rusty are so happy to see the boxes and we can't wait to distribute them to the Iraqis. We have received ten more HA boxes today and received seven boxes about three days ago.

On Tuesday, 28AUG07, we are planning to distribute the monetary assistance that LTG Odierno committed to provide to the affected families. Currently, I have 360 families on my list that we're going to give some monetary assistance. We plan to split the families in three groups. On Tuesday, we would have 150 families come to the Karadah Hall. While the parents are going through the line for the monetary support, we would have the HA clothes and the other stuff you've sent in a separate rooms for the children to go to and pick what they want. We would do the same again the following day and we're hoping that we can complete the process on Thursday. This is the plan right now and I'll get back with you again tomorrow…More to follow.

From Sept 14^th Email:

Aloha!!! How are things back home? I want to express my thanks and appreciation for all the people that support your foundation and putting time to assist us here downrange. The HA drop at Karadah was a success. We were able to give assistance to about over hundred families who were affected and as result most of them are homeless. They are very thankful of what we are doing to assist them and the District Councils of Karadah wants to convey their appreciation to you folks back home.

On the day of the HA drop, we laid out the clothes where the family exited and from there, they choose what they wanted from the file of clothes. It was like a garage sale and it was exciting to see the people pick from the different files of clothes. Please forward some of the picture to your supporters and again please convey our thanks to all of them.

Tom,

There is a local Iraqi District Council member who has dedicated much of her time to locating and assisting the refugee families who have fled to our area from all over Iraq. This area is a little safer than most, so we have several hundred of these families here -- Sunni, Shia, whatever. They often arrive here with little besides their clothing, a few small suitcases, and a carload of children. Jamilia, the council member, invited many of these families to a local government office that was secured by Iraqi Police for the purpose of giving out food and water. And she invited us too. So, we loaded up one of our trailers with many of the clothes, shoes, stuffed animals and school supplies that you and your friends have sent us. There were hundreds of Iraqis there with their families. We pulled up and opened the trailer, and you would have thought we were giving out gold bars. Hundreds of them gathered around us to get whatever we had to offer. And they were grateful. I saw li ttle kids holding stuffed animals bigger than they were. I saw families helping their children try on the new clothing and shoes.

We have not thanked you and your friends for sending us these things. We have been busy here and there are never enough hours in the day. Please thank them for me. It was a great event and a great day, and all the boxes of gifts that you guys sent us made a big difference.

I was only able to take a few pictures, but here is a picture of SGT Plows giving a stuffed animal to a tiny little person. It is a cute picture, and very meaningful in this environment. As you know, many of the Iraqis are fed lies about us by the insurgents and radical Imams and those who want us to fail here. They are told that we are oppressors and infidels. And, unfortunately, many Iraqis believe the lies because they don't get to interact with us and find out the truth. On that day, with the hundreds of refugee families, they got to see us for who we really are.

Thank You,
Bill

Captain William Billeter
US Army, Infantry
414th Civil Affairs Team Leader
Baghdad, 2006-2007

A young boy named Abdullah was injured when RPG shrapnel destroyed his hip. Without expert pediatric orthopedic surgical care he will never walk again. Bill Billeter, a West Point graduate who moved his family 2,000 miles and missed the birth of his child in order to deploy spearheaded this effort and refused to let the issue die with the military and Iraqi bureaucracies. Phil McIntire, a Michigan native and Civil Affairs Company Commander, tapped into his network at home and arranged for the boy to be treated at the University of Michigan Hospital by an elite surgeon – all medical expenses paid. Our Fund will paid the travel expenses for the mother and child in April 2007. Here is an excerpt from an email from Phil as he describes what happened when the father was notified last winter of the impending help. (Our interpreter’s nick name is Jackie Chan and our company mascot is the ArchAngels).

I had Jackie Chan call the family today to make sure they were willing to go through with this. It will require for the boy and his mom to be away from their family, alone in the US for several weeks. The family had no idea of what was going on behind the scenes other than they asked the GIC for help. The Dad answered the phone, I prepped Jackie in what I wanted him to say so he just went on for several seconds. The Dad was so shocked he started crying... Jackie was actually shaking because he was so happy to give the good news and realize how much it meant to the Dad. The Dad kept saying between his tears of joy... "I feel like I am talking to an angel from heaven!" "I feel like I've been talking to an angel!" It hit me, the magnitude of what we were helping to give to these parents and little Abdual... I am confident the "Angels" had something to do with this!
I don't know the next steps regarding airfare, but will get back with you with and provide an update soon.

Thanks Tom for staying true to the calling of the "Archangels".... "the protectors".

God Bless
Phil