Grateful Kurds thank soldiers

This is a heartwarming story amid all the heartache.

By ANITA WADHWANI

Staff Writer

Group charters bus to visit Fort Campbell

The gifts kept coming.

''We stand here as a testimony to you that the war is not without purpose,'' said Isa Chalky, as he presented a clock inscribed with a similar message to Brig. Gen. Jeff Schloesser, assistant division commander of the 101st Airborne Division. ''And for returning hope to the Kurdish people. Please accept our sincere thanks for your enormous courage and sacrifice.''

Chalky was among 55 Kurdish immigrants and children who chartered a bus from Nashville to Fort Campbell yesterday to thank the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade personally.

The 3,400-member brigade returned from Iraq in February and March. Most spent the past year protecting Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. Many Nashville-area Kurds, who number about 5,000 families, have friends and relatives living in that region.


Ali Mearni, center, chats with Capt. Caraccilo, left, and Lt. Col. Joe Buche of the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade at Fort Campbell. Mearni was among a group of Kurdish immigrants who were the brigade's special guests yesterday.

Little Ahmad Khoshnaw, 7, whispered his thanks as he handed the general an envelope.

Schloesser unfolded the notebook paper inside and read the message. ''Thank you for capturing Saddam,'' it said. Underneath were the signatures of 35 children. ''We'll frame this,'' he said. ''Thank you.''

Several women handed soldiers red roses. Two teenage girls delivered the flag of the Kurdish Democratic Party, a political party whose fighting forces in northern Iraq received training from the 3rd Brigade.

In exchange, the general presented the visitors with a silver plaque, a leather-bound history of the 101st Airborne and his thanks. Soldiers passed out coins inscribed with the Fort Campbell insignia.


Narin Aboullatif, 11, left, Suzdar Maksut, 10, and Kamir Maksut join other Kurdish immigrants from the Nashville area yesterday in thanking Fort Campbell soldiers who protected Kurds in Iraq. The Tennessean