Artillery Lieutenant Fired Up About Helping Iraqi Kids
by Staff Sgt. Nate Orme, Public Affairs NCO for the 3rd Personnel Command

1st Lt. Barden holds a schoolchild named Fatima from Laylan, Iraq.

KIRKUK, Iraq—Field artillery officers aren’t typically known for their sensitive side, but when it comes to helping kids at schools they have been assigned to watch over, they can be like guardian angels.

At least that’s what some Iraqi kids will surely think when they receive the tons of school supplies 1st Lt. Kyle Barden is planning to bring them, donated by Americans through the charity he and his brother started.

It all started after Barden’s unit, the 173th Airborne Brigade, D Battery, was placed in the somewhat unfamiliar position of running a town, directed and aided in their task by thinly stretched civil affairs units.

“When we first got here (in northern Iraq) the environment was such that they put us in charge of a town,” Barden said. “The town is a mostly Kurdish village named Laylan with about 10,000 people. We are in charge of establishing and running the police force, electing the mayor, the city council, the utilities, and the school system. The civil affairs assets were very few and far between. There was a CMOC (Civil Military Operations Center) in downtown Kirkuk with representatives for different types of projects. Units would go to them and get contracts. The water rep helped us contract out and funded three water towers.”

1st Lt. Barden, right, soldiers from his unit, and crew members unload an Army C-23 planeload of school supplies for children in Laylan, Iraq.

Barden said one of the biggest problems was that the town’s eight functioning schools did not have any supplies for the students.

“I emailed my older brother, who is a stockbroker in Charlotte, N.C., and asked him to send some school supplies,” Barden explained. “He started by writing a letter to extended family, friends and church. Before you knew it, it was huge. The Charlotte Observer did a story on it. People from other states learned about it; the President mentioned it in his address; it’s been on the news.”

Barden’s brother, Taylor Barden, set up a nonprofit corporation which the lieutenant bashfully said is called Kyle’s Schools, adding that he wants to change the name to get the focus off him.

“The intent was to square my schools away. In Laylan there are approximately 2,000 kids. We’re going to saturate Laylan then start going to other towns,” Barden said.

With the response so far, it shouldn’t be hard. Barden said that both businesses, particularly Office Depot, and citizens have donated.

“My brother told me to expect 20,000 pounds of supplies. We were having a hard time getting it here, but then a pilot from Delta Airlines, James Harper, offered to fly it over here for free,” Barden said.

Barden said the town has been very enthusiastic about the projects his unit has initiated.

“We have a really good relationship with the town. It’s a primarily Kurdish town and the Kurds love Americans,” Barden stated. “I’ve told the mayor about the school supplies, but the kids have no idea. There’s every type of supply you can imagine—also toys. We’re just going to show up and start handing stuff out.”