Nighthawk News

For a Soldier, a call to deploy can be a stressful encounter.

Those who leave for a year-long tour into combat zone could face a long, hard road away from friends and family. During this critical point, sometimes the best way to keep their spirits up is to show them support.

A little bit of support can go a long way, as shown by some Indiana communities who decided to demonstrate their support for local Soldiers by baking cookies for the now-mobilized 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

But what started as a simple snack request from an Army chaplain soon became a fresh-baked phenomenon.

Tiffany Gorski hands out cookies to mobilizing Soldiers at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, south of Indianapolis. The cookies were donated from churches and families throughout the Franklin, Whiteland and Greenwood, Ind., communities over the past week. Nearly 2,000 dozen cookies were given to members of the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, who are currently mobilizing in preparation for a 12-month deployment to Iraq scheduled for the spring.
Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika (Released)

Sgt. 1st Class James Lee, a chaplain’s assistant for the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, stood near his make-shift desk as a group of Soldiers moved from one station to another around him, signing paperwork and making final preparations prior to their mission to Iraq.

As they made their way to Lee’s station, some Soldiers reached for homemade cookies. A few feet away, Tiffany Gorski, an employee at Camp Atterbury, handed out more cookies to a long line of Soldiers.

Lee chuckled as he rested his arm on a stack of cardboard boxes, each one packed full of cookies and said that he remembers talking to a local church a couple weeks ago when they wanted to see how they could help the deploying Soldiers.

“Some of the churches wanted to send some Bibles or books or something like that, but we have plenty of those,” he said. “So we asked them to donate cookies; not those cookies that you get from the store or anything like that, but mama’s home-baked cookies.”

Lee said he was surprised at the response. Within a week, nearly 2,000 dozen cookies of every shape, size and flavor had been dropped off at the processing station.

“I wasn’t expecting this much,” Lee said. “It’s nice to see that the church is backing up the Soldiers, regardless of the war.”

The cookies, donated by churches from Whiteland, Franklin, Greenwood and Sweetser communities, were the direct result of the Atterbury’s neighbor’s desire to help out fellow Hoosiers, said Pastor Joe Wyatt of Whiteland United Methodist Church.

“We were put in touch with Chaplin Ebb to see how we could help out members of the 76th,” Wyatt said. “I thought he might suggest we set up a support group or something like that, but he said that it would be nice if the Soldiers had home-baked cookies as a way of us showing that we love and support them.”

After hearing that more than 3,400 Indiana citizen Soldiers are scheduled to deploy, Wyatt said that he got a little worried about being able to provide enough cookies. However, a church member by the name of Lithida Noonen used her contacts throughout the community to get the job done.

“Since she runs the local food pantry, Lithida contacted some friends, churches and anybody she knew to bake the cookies,” he said. “They literally started pouring in right and left. It was simple, but it was amazing. When the local community heard that it was for these men and women leaving for Iraq, it became a huge deal. Most people gave at least four to 10 dozen.”

Pastor Terry Bishir of Liberty Baptist Church in Sweetser, whose church donated around 800 dozen, said that the cookies are just one small way of showing that they support their hometown heroes.

“We felt compelled to show the men and women that we stand by them and support what they are doing,” Bishir said. “We have several of our personal friends and family over in Iraq, so we understand that it’s not an easy assignment, and we understand that it gets harder during the holiday season.”

“This proves that the church and surrounding communities are backing up these Soldiers,” Lee said. “It’s a family ordeal, and they don’t care what religion you are; they just want to show that they love you.”