Soldiers find soccer balls to be useful tools in promoting image of America.

By Lt. Col. James S. Overbye

I am an active duty infantry officer, currently assigned as a Brigade level Embedded Transition Team or ETT. My team and I are assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps of the Afghan National Army. Our mission is to coach, teach and mentor the 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps in Zabul province to become capable of conducting independent military operations. We live in close proximity to, train with and fight with our Afghan brothers. There are a total of 14 mentors currently working with the Brigade staff and headquarters. In addition to the mentorship we provide, we can also assist the Afghans by providing coalition effects when we get into a fight. These include such things as Close Air Support (CAS) or Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC). MEDEVAC can be essential to moving any wounded Afghan soldiers off the battlefield and to care very quickly.

The 2nd Brigade of the 205th Corps operates in Zabul province. Zabul Province is a rural province located in Southern Afghanistan. It is approximately 17,500 square kilometers of harsh terrain, with a population of around 365,000. The province is very poor and about 96 percent illiterate.

The climate here is also very harsh, with much of the area of Zabul consisting of high desert or mountains. The elevation here is approximately 6,000 feet in the valley, and much higher in the surrounding mountains. The province also has shares a border with Pakistan. The predominant language spoken in Zabul Province is Pashto.

The 2nd Brigade consists of five subordinate battalions or Kandaks. Each Kandak has approximately 600 soldiers. The first, second and third Kandaks are all rifle Kandaks. The 4th Kandak is a Combat Support (CS) Kandak and has an artillery battery, an engineer company and a recon company. The 5th Kandak is the Combat Service Support (CSS) Kandak and has all the associated logistical support assets for the Brigade. There are ETTs assigned with each of the subordinate Kandaks. These ETTs live and work with the Kandaks they are mentoring. Generally, each of these Kandak level ETTs consists of approximately 14 Americans. These Americans are deployed on small Forward Operating Bases throughout the 17,500 square kilometers of the province that the Brigade is deployed over, so my solders and I get out to some fairly remote parts of Afghanistan on a routine basis.

In our patrols with the Afghan National Army throughout the province, we come into contact with a lot of children that live in some very poor and challenging conditions. Nearly 50 percent of Zabul Province is under the age of 18, so there are a lot of young people here. We continue to be impressed how friendly and open they are to us, and everyone wants to try and do something to help them and make their lives just a little bit better.

A few weeks back, one of the officers on my team, Maj. Aaron Wolfe, received some soccer balls from someone back in the States. On a recent patrol, we had the Afghan National Army soldiers we were with pass these balls out to the children we encountered in the villages. The soccer balls were a great success with the kids and they really enjoyed them. An Afghan National Army officer mentioned that it is "better to have the children learning to play soccer then learning to fight."

Soccer balls provide a couple of advantages; first, they are something that kids can play with collectively, encouraging them to play together. Secondly, they provide the young people with something to do, a short distraction from the normal occurrences of their day-to-day lives. Lastly, when they are given to them by fellow Afghans serving in the Afghan National Army, the children see the balls as coming from the legitimate government of Afghanistan. This helps to promote the government in the eyes of the young people, something that we very much want to do in an environment like Afghanistan, especially in a province which has so many young people. The only problem we have now with our program is that we ran out of balls. This is where Operation Soccer Smiles comes in.

I got the idea for the Operation from a woman in Texas that sent us some care packages through the Anysoldier.com program. In her note, she asked if there was anything else she could do to help, and I mentioned our desire to obtain some soccer balls. Since she is a graduate from Texas A & M, and lives near the campus, she mentioned that she would approach the university about making a donation. She also thought that perhaps other schools, sports organizations, churches or other organizations might want to get involved. Since the goal of the program is to collect soccer balls for young people, she aptly suggested that we call the program Operation Soccer Smiles.

The operation is still in its very early stages, but we hope to receive our first balls shortly. Once that is done, we will provide photos to those organizations contributing, so they can see the benefit of their contribution. Who knows, perhaps there is someone out there that may be interested in supporting this program by developing a Web site or something. I really don't know the best way to move forward, as I am a soldier and not a businessman or marketing person. I do know however that providing soccer balls to young people may potentially have a very positive influence on their lives here in Southern Afghanistan.

Editor note: Jim Overbye, now serving in Afghanistan, headed George Mason University's ROTC program. Overbye leads a team of 14 U.S. mentors embedded with an Afghan army brigade of about 3,000 Afghans. Also among the team of 14 is George Greanias, of Springfield. The Connection will print occasional updates from these local soldiers. To contact Overbye, send e- mail to me at mkimm@connectionnewspapers.com and I will forward the messages.In this week's dispatch, Overbye seeks donations of soccer balls for Afghan youth.