Local Contact with Children of War

For American soldiers in Iraq, there was a time when contact with the local children was a boost to morale. Often an exchange of languages, a photo opportunity, even a chance to buy a kid an ice cream in an attempt to introduce normalcy to both their days. There was also a time, and it happened almost overnight, when this all changed.

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reports that as violence increased, kids were often coerced and even threatened into joining insurgent groups and used them against American soldiers. Consequently all contact with children was ordered to stop.

This is when American soldier, Gunnar Swanson found himself staring down his M-16 rifle at a young boy ordering him to stop. "Pointing a gun at a child, threatening to shoot him," Swanson explains to the CSM. "I was 25 years old at the time and it has weighed pretty heavy on me since then." This was six years ago.

Fortunatley Swanson has found a constructive way to deal with his memories. After returning home and spending a short time as a dolphin trainer, he was still preoccupied with thoughts of the children in Iraq. A search led him to War Kids Relief, and in no time he was working for the non-profit that works with kids in Iraq and Afghanistan traumatically affected by war.

Much of his work has been talking to school children and often the first topic of conversation is his first name. He tells them his first name has nothing to do with being in the military: He was named for his great-grandfather. (Gunnar is a Scandinavian name that means "brave soldier.")

Swanson has the students write letters to their peers in both countries. In all 27,000 have been collected and will be distributed next year. "A kid over in Iraq or Afghanistan who has received a letter from a kid in the United States will probably hold onto that letter for the rest of his life," Swanson tells the CSM.

Another project of Swansons was to hold a 1000 mile, "Soldiers March For Peace" that started in Dallas on July 4 and ended in Northfield  Minn. (where WKR is headquartered) to raise money for  vocational centres in Mosul, Iraq and Khost Afganistan.

There's little doubt he had some time to buy a few kids an ice cream along the way.

 Photo courtesy soldiersmediacenter via Flickr