AMONG THE NUMEROUS duties the GIs probably never expected...walking Iraqi girls to school.

“We heard girls were getting kidnapped, so we come down to protect them,” said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Crosby.

The 3rd Infantry Division, which fought its way to Baghdad, now patrols the streets of the Iraqi capital like police. The soldiers’ presence at the school is more of a friendly courtesy rather than a response to actual kidnappings, said Capt. Mark Madden.

“They often exaggerate the truth to get us to respond,” Madden said. “We don’t know if it’s true. We don’t have any confirmed cases.”

The whole story is here.