From Bay View to Baghdad

Renee Cook didn’t know what to do or where to go. She felt disconnected from an increasingly faceless and confusing war as tens of thousands more American troops make their way to Iraq. She wanted to help but wasn’t sure how. She remembered her own brothers, who served in Vietnam. Most of all, she didn’t want to forget the sacrifice of the troops-and, if possible, she wanted to remind them other Americans hadn’t either.

Late last year, she did something about it.

Cook, a two-year employee of Bucky’s Super Video, 1601 E. Oklahoma Ave., started an in-store donation drive for the troops in Iraq. She knows it won’t stop the killing or bring the soldiers home, but it created a small token of goodwill, and a connection between the home front and the battlefield. 

With the support of her boss, Tom Ebert, Bucky’s sent its first care package into the Green Zone in December. In February, they received thank-you emails back.

“And this puts me into connection, it hits more closer to home, with the letters and stuff and the pictures, it makes it more personal, like wow, you know,” Cook said.

With the help of Army National Guard Captain (Ret.) Dan Buttery, Bucky’s customer and Iraq War veteran, Cook is organizing a second drive for the troops. They will send the next shipment by May 31.

A camouflaged barrel near the store’s entrance is the repository for donations. Suggested items include beef sticks, pumpkin seeds, DVDs, toiletries, toothbrushes, coffee, small flashlights, soap, sunflower seeds, tea bags, Kool Aid, video games, dried fruit, and granola.

“You know,” Buttery said, “the important thing to always remember is, yes you’re in a combat zone, and the stress is very high, but when there’s downtime, you have time to think. And that can kind of be your own worst enemy. And so some of the things that you try to do for the wellbeing of the soldier, sailor, airman, or marine, is to try to give them something, to try to keep them connected to home.”

Buttery ensured the first care package was sent directly to a person, in this case, his friend “Captain Jon,” who’s set up a library to share items among the troops.

“Jon even pushed back a little bit [initially],” Buttery said. “He’s like, look, we’re not looking for handouts. I came back and said, Jon, you don’t understand. If there are things that you could use, and we’ve got people back here who just want to send our appreciation to you, that’s what we’re saying.”

Buttery said Jon’s selflessness is characteristic of the service members he knows, even in a conflict with a high proportion of reservists, an unknown timeline, and where extensions are common.

Buttery was a field commander in the Army engineer corps during the first year of the war. He said he had to leverage the civilian skill sets of his reservists to help the Iraqis rebuild.

“They were drinking out of the canals, which are flowing downstream through Baghdad, through all these other industrial spill areas, and it got to the point where we were…working on a daily basis on a project to improve a village,” Buttery said.

He said this improved relationships in Iraq.

“It would get to the point where the sheik and I…we’d be exchanging cigarettes and drinking chai and near the end you got to the point where these local leaders, you’d ask them, How are we doing, is this good? And they’re like, you guys, you’re family, you’re fine.”

That was in 2003-04. Buttery brought all 125 of his soldiers home alive.

Buttery was “medically retired” following a medical review board Jan. 19, 2007, having herniated two discs in his lower back when jumping out of a Humvee in Iraq in December 2003.

Back home in Bay View, he now owns and operates his own home inspection business, Argus Inspections, which donates to the VFW’s Unmet Needs program.

“And now all I want to do is put my energies behind continuing to support the guys and gals who continue to be on point, doing what they’re doing. True sacrifice…” he said. “It’s amazing. Mentally. Not just physically but mentally what some of these people have given. And they just, once their service is done, they just want to quietly go back to their life of normalcy.”