During Desert Storm, we had stopped during the ground invasion to check our vehicles. During our stop I was assigned the responsibility to check out some structures that were very near us. While checking out the structures we found a group of children who were hiding because they had seen our movement through the area. The oldest child was maybe 12 and the youngest in the group was around 7 years old, these kids had been left on their own for sometime. It really broke my because all I could think about at the time were my kids, and here were some children living like this dirty and hungry. We could not take them with us due to the on going conflict, so we gave them some blankets, enough food and water for around a week. As we were leaving every one of them were smiling, and saying good bye in their language.
About 24 hours after this event the Iraqi Government agreed to a Cease Fire and all Hostilities ceased. I contacted a faction of the Red Cross and provided the location of these children. I later learned they had been picked-up and moved to a refuge camp.
The look on the children's faces that day, went from utter fear to thankfulness was the greatest compliment I have every been paid, and nothing will every compare to it for me.
