THE SEEMINGLY NEVER-ENDING GOODNESS OF FOLKS FROM THE AMERICA I LIVE IN

Life is a little easier for an Ashe County unit of the North Carolina National Guard now that a local telephone company has provided them with better tents.

The help for the 1450th Transportation Company came in the form of 44 individual tents that fit around soldiers' cots and shelter them better from sand-filled desert winds.

Members of the Jefferson-based unit move equipment and supplies in Iraq. They have been overseas for about three months and have had the new tents a few weeks.

The gift was made by Skyline Telephone Membership Corporation. Skyline is a cooperative that serves parts of Ashe, Alleghany, Watauga and Avery counties, and Johnson County, Tennessee.

The decision to buy the tents was made after word got back that the unit's soldiers were getting very little rest during missions and were having to bury themselves inside their sleeping bags in the heated climate.