| In Iraq, a UH-60 pilot (Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss), and his crew chief (Specialist Ben Knoepke) decided to bring the para-bears (or âteddy-troopersâ) to the their neighborhood. Since last April, about a thousand bears have been dropped (in rural areas, doing it in a city risks having kids running into traffic to grab a bear). The largest drop was on May 21st, when 200 were dropped. The bears, and the material for the parachutes (or sometimes assembled parachutes) are all donated. If you want to help out, email rmk@rmkonline.com for more info. Again, as in Bosnia, there is no hard evidence that the para-bear effort has had a major effect on the war. But the helicopter pilots can see smiles on the faces of kids catching the bears, and troops moving report seeing happy kids, clutching teddy bears, and maybe a little less violence from the local armed adults. |