NORMAN — Chase Rutledge and his fellow Blackhawk helicopter pilots launch about five candy bombs from their aircraft over small Iraqi villages during each daily mission.
And when these explode, they rupture with shoes, candy and a soccer ball.
This is one bomb that — when it detonates — doesn’t leave destruction in its wake.
Here, children pause from passing their makeshift soccer ball of weeds, racing toward the catapulted “surprise” — as Rutledge put it — whose only aftermath is a cloud of dust on landing.
“They used to be scared when we would drop them because there was a lot of fighting going on, and they don’t know about helicopters and what’s coming out of them. But now, it’s like a little treat. They’ll start cheering when they see us flying over, hoping something will come out,” said Rutledge, Norman resident and a Blackhawk helicopter pilot stationed in Iraq, of dropping the donated shoes and soccer balls to Iraqi children.
Rutledge, who is home for two weeks for the birth of his fourth child, which was Wednesday, spoke Tuesday about his work in Iraq to classes at Community Christian School, where two of his children attend.
Now that most fire has ceased on his missions, Rutledge and other soldiers of his unit are headlining a philanthropic off-shoot of the United States’ politically-driven stability campaign across the war-scarred country: Little Soles for Little Souls.
While the campaign — based on dropping donations of shoes and soccer balls from U.S. helicopters to Iraqi children — isn’t original to his unit, Rutledge said it was a new undertaking for the group when it began a couple years ago.
“I’m a Christian, and I think it’s my duty,” he said after his first presentation to his son Charles’ fifth-grade class, noting that most soccer fields are constructed by the children’s hands from scraps and games are played barefooted by kicking a ball of weeds. “For us, it’s a humanitarian thing. I mean, the kids need shoes.”
Rutledge said many of these candy bombs are compiled from leftovers in care packages sent to the troops. Others have mailed boxes of new and used shoes and soccer balls, such as a box of 200 brand new shoes sent for launching.
But it’s still not enough, said Rutledge, as he explained the charity to the fifth-graders, hoping to recruit a few more dozen shoes and balls.
Similar to his reasons for joining the war, Rutledge said the campaign is a variation of his mission for change, potentially protecting more than the country’s physical soles.
“Of course, I want to change the whole country. I know I can’t do that, but I can start,” he said. “Who’s to say that one kid who gets a pair of shoes isn’t going to be a leader, and maybe he’ll change the course of that country. That doesn’t just drive me. That drives a lot of us over there.”
Nanette Light 366-3541 nlight@normantranscript.com
