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FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq (May 26, 2008) - During a
morning visit to Taha Naji Deyad's house, 1st Lt. Michael Kendrick
sits at the family table, eating flatbread with jam and fried eggs,
and sipping chai tea.
"I eat a lot of meals here," Kendrick says.
It's clear he is a welcome guest and a family friend, and not
just because he's the leader of the platoon responsible for this
neighborhood in al-Buaytha. As he sits at the table talking to
Taha, Taha's 5-year old daughter Noor insists on sitting next to
him. She often holds his hand; sometimes she whispers in his ear or
offers a kiss on his cheek.
Kendrick, the father of two young daughters himself, is not only
tolerant; he enjoys the little girl's company. She wears a pair of
purple children's sunglasses that Kendrick's wife, Robin, sent as a
gift for her.
Soon she may need them.
Kendrick's visit today is special. With him is Lt. Col. Hyun
Lee, battalion surgeon from the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry
Regiment, who is here to review final preparations for a trip Noor
is taking. It's a trip that, if successful, will give Noor the
ability to see, something she has never been able to do.
Noor has been blind since birth. A condition called sclerocornea
makes it possible for her to detect only vague impressions of
light. Her father, a schoolteacher, has a brother with the same
illness who lives with the family in their house on the banks of
the Tigris River.
When Kendrick arrived here last year as part of 3rd Platoon,
Company D, 1-30th Inf. Regt., 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry
Division, he began meeting residents of al-Buaytha, often leaving
the safety of his armored vehicle to walk in the neighborhoods.
"Our philosophy, especially mine, is that we would get out and
get with the people to talk about what their issues were, what
their problems were," he said. Soon he met Taha, who in addition to
teaching at the nearby al-Harah school, is also a contractor and
community council member, working on projects to rebuild his
village's damaged infrastructure.
"He's been our go-to guy," said Kendrick, from Phoenix. "He's a
friend of mine, he's a friend of all of ours. He takes care of my
men and we try to take care of him and his family. He's part of our
extended family as far as our platoon is concerned."
Taha helped work on several community projects, such as
rebuilding and improving the school. He said his friendship with
Kendrick began as soon as they met. Then Kendrick visited the
family's house and met young Noor.
"When I started talking with him, Noor just seemed to follow
right along. She follows [Taha] everywhere. Because his house was
in my area of responsibility, it was natural that I would find
her," Kendrick said.
"When he came and sat with me, he saw Noor," Taha said. "Noor
sat with him and touched him, because she can not see. She thinks
everyone cannot see, like her. After that, she asked me about
Kendrick: 'Father, where does Kendrick come from? Father, is
Kendrick a good man or a bad man?' Every time she would ask about
him. One day she told me, 'Father, I want to tell you something,
but I don't know if it's good or bad.' I said, 'Tell me.' She said,
'I love Kendrick.'"
After the initial visit, said Kendrick, he and Taha stayed in
touch daily.
"We're there five to six days a week on patrol, so Noor was
naturally part of our patrol. We'd check in with Taha, see how they
were doing and check in on Noor as well," Kendrick said.
Then Kendrick got the idea to try and do something about Noor's
blindness.
"We inquired through our medic what the process was in getting
her seen by a doctor and getting an evaluation," Kendrick said.
They sent pictures to the battalion surgeon, Lee, who then
personally evaluated her. The ball started rolling from there,
Kendrick said.
As it turned out, little Noor was a prime candidate for surgery,
further involving the battalion.
When Lt. Col. Kenneth Adgie, 1-30th Inf. Regt. commander, heard
about Noor, he backed the project.
"He had the opportunity to meet Taha [and Noor] one-on-one, and
that's all it took. As soon as he met Taha and saw what kind of man
he was, he just went with it. He's been fully supportive," Kendrick
said.
Initially, Air Force ophthalmologists were to perform the
procedure, but when that option failed, other avenues were
explored. The Eye Defects Research Foundation, a non-governmental
organization based in Los Angeles, stepped in to help. They found a
doctor in the United States willing to perform the procedure and
secured visas for Noor and her mother Shaymaa to travel there.
Early Memorial Day morning, Kendrick and members of his platoon
picked up Noor, Shaymaa and Taha and gave them a ride to Baghdad
International Airport in the back of a Mine-Resistant Ambush
Protected vehicle. Noor smiled as the vehicle bounced up and down
dirt roads, her mother holding her tightly. At the airport, Noor
said goodbye to Kendrick and her father. After giving Kendrick a
last peck on the cheek, she and her mother were escorted to the
terminal. For a while afterward, Taha wept. Kendrick, who is
scheduled to redeploy with the rest of the 2nd BCT in July, would
like to see Noor return home before he leaves.
"It would be an awesome capstone, to get this done," Kendrick
said. "This is one of a hundred things we've accomplished as far as
improving the lives of people in our area. As far as my piece of
the puzzle is concerned, I can lay my head at night knowing I've
done everything I can do."
Kendrick was careful to point out that his measure of success
for his time in Iraq doesn't necessarily depend on the success of
Noor's surgery. He has many other good experiences to look back on.
When he arrived in al-Buaytha, terrorist violence was still common;
now it looks as if peace is becoming permanent.
"It was awful. Now you've got kids going to school every day,
kids walking to school. You've got families opening stores. People
walk around their [neighborhoods]. They're proud of their
communities again," he said.
Though the surgery isn't guaranteed to give Noor her vision,
Taha, as a father and a teacher, is hopeful of her prospects.
"Before now, we told ourselves maybe she cannot go to school.
Now we hope to see Noor next year in my school, with my kids," he
said.
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