AMAZING

Every time I read a story like this I am just amazed at the generosity of Americans, and the incredible spirit of the United States military.

And this isn't an isolated event...there have been numerous stories like this.

I know of no other military in the world whose members, while trained in the lethal arts, bring with them such a sense of goodness and humanity.

Proud to be an American? Yes, in fact I am.

A book drive spurred by Company A, 501st Signal Battalion, 101st Airborne Division led to the donation of 1,200 textbooks and novels to Mosul University, a school that had many books destroyed under the censorship of the former regime.

While at Mosul University on a project to restore a computer lab, Capt. James Riley, Co. A. commander, met with a professor, and they discussed the possibility of rebuilding the school's library. Riley then called his former college, Vermont's Norwich University, and spoke with the school's president, Richard Schneider.

In a matter of days, Schneider started a book drive which had citizens of Central Vermont flooding the mail system with books on science, history, philosophy, psychology, computer science and economics, as well as a few novels.