UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Blog

Guest Blog from Professor Robert A. Connolly, Associate Professor of Finance

This youngster is getting a pair of shoes to put on bare feet. The snow is about 15 feet away on the right of the photograph.

Over the past several weeks, many of our faculty, staff and students have stepped forward to assist in meeting the request for children’s winter clothing and shoes made by some U.S. Army units in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan.  This is part of a larger effort mounted by myself and a few others around the country who are supporting these infantry and engineering companies (Task Force 1-2 IN).  These units specifically requested this sort of assistance from back home.  I received today the first photos from the distribution of this gear.

In this particular case, the unit involved, soldiers in a platoon from B Company, 1^st Battalion, 2^nd Infantry Regiment (the 1-2 IN, part of the 172^nd Separate Infantry Brigade, normally stationed in Grafenwöhr, Germany) trekked through knee-deep snow to a village in their area of operations (AO in Army-speak), with each soldier carrying a rucksack filled with clothing and shoes.  Here are a few photos from Saturday’s mission.

Thanks for your support of these soldiers.  Over this week, I will ship another half dozen large boxes of shoes, jackets, heavy sweaters, pants, and the like to these soldiers, using the contributions from the faculty, staff, and MBA students in the school.  The leadership in these units is very clear about the impact in their AO of what American citizens send through the mail.  The atmosphere in their AO is somewhat tense (as you might imagine if you have seen the news from Afghanistan in the past week), but your generosity combined with their focus on protecting the local population has paid rich dividends in their area.  The leaders with whom I work have asked that I pass to you their sincere thanks for your generosity.

You won’t see this on the news, because no reporters want to go to these locations and stay long enough to see what’s really happening.  Efforts along these lines are underway in many other areas of the country, too.  There is much to respect and appreciate in the conduct of these troopers.  Again, thanks for your continued support.