It's always nice to see a smile on a child's face, especially in a war-torn country. The one thing I knew that always brought joy to the children was candy. Knowing that made me want to do something special. I did it for the children.
It was first deployment as a buck sergeant. The daily routine was what it was, but something was missing. I wanted to do something to bring joy and happiness to what was, for lack of a better term, a lousy situation. One evening, after my guard shift, I made a phone call to Mom. The call wasn't routine so she was pleasantly surprised. Of course we exchanged pleasantries but that wasn't why I had called. I told her about my idea and she was absolutely thrilled to help out. She started asking me so many questions at once like "how much should I send?" and "what do the children like? Do they like taffy?" .
I couldn't keep up with the questions! I gave up and let Mom take the reigns. I knew she'd be on board. She certainly didn't hesitate to get the goods and ship them out. Three weeks later I received a huge box from Mom. As always, my buddies were hovering over trying to sneak a peek at the contents. Judging by the weight, there was twenty pounds of candy in that box. I opened to box and immediately had to close it. Inside was, in my opinion, some of the best candies. She put everything in there, from chocolate peanut butter cups to handmade saltwater taffy. I was tempted to keep it for myself. But, I couldn't do that, I knew Mom would want some pictures. The next day was our trip to the local village. I went to my superiors with the idea and they were very supportive. The village was small, with only about seventy inhabitants. A single dirt path ran through the middle of a group of tiny brick and mortar buildings. It was exactly like I remembered it in the movies. As we went in to town, the locals welcomed us, the children laughed and played as they chased our vehicle to the village police station.
