BAGHDAD, Iraq – As 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers from Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, pulled up to the gates of a primary school in Al Hateen, children and parents gathered with bright eyes.

 The Soldiers dismounted and gathered at the back of a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) that accompanied the Humvees in the convoy there. They unloaded pallets holding gifts for the children at the school: backpacks for every student without one.   “Today we conducted a portion of Operation Virtual Pencil,” said Capt. David Minascheck, 3-82 FA’s civil affairs officer. “We went to two schools in our area, and gave out 1100 backpacks to those students who needed one.”

His battalion’s part in this operation included supplying a total of 1700 backpacks among three schools in their area. A third school will be given their 600 backpacks at a later date.

 “We set up our part in this project with the Ministry of Education by gathering the school’s head mistresses and asking them what they needed for their schools,” said Staff Sgt. Anthony Falcone, a team leader in Company A, 414th Civil Affairs Battalion. “[The] division gave us these backpacks to distribute, and some private companies from the [United States] are donating other supplies which we can distribute at a different time.”

 Though the battalion has dozens of other schools in their area, this project can only focus on a few, and choosing these certain schools came with consideration.  These schools had already been given facelifts with refurbishing projects completed this summer, Minascheck said.   “The reason we picked them is we wanted to concentrate on that area because there has been some problems there,” Minascheck said.  “This way we get the word out on the street by giving them a refurbished school and a backpack to get started up.”

 According to 2BCT civil affairs (S-5) each battalion will supply backpacks among three to five schools in their sector, with the brigade giving a total of 15,000 backpacks to Iraqi children at 33 schools in the 2BCT area of operations.   This project doesn’t stop at 2BCT either. Operation Virtual Pencil is a 1st Cav. Div. wide civil military operation to make school a little easier for children in Baghdad, at the same time helping make the job easier for Iraqi Security Forces.