"JUST HEARING BOMBS"

Special favors demand special repayment.

On Wednesday, the children at Vineyards Elementary School in North Naples received theirs: an American flag that flew over Baghdad, a thank-you for the many cards and letters they sent to soldiers stationed there during Operation Iraqi Freedom...

Those letters meant so much, Bailey told the school during the presentation.

They helped to remind the soldiers why they were fighting, he said.

"The simplest package or simplest sheet of paper," Bailey said, "it lifts your spirits."...

When the girls were given the project of writing the letters, teachers told them it would make the troops feel better, Keely said. In the end, they felt better too, they agreed.

"It felt good because those people there are in the war, and they haven't had people to talk to, just hearing bombs," Stephanie said.