Helping Iraqi children.

Regular viewers of the weekly crime drama CSI: NY are familiar with actor Gary Sinise, who is also well-known for the role he played as Lt. Dan Taylor in the film Forrest Gump. Sinise is less well-known for his role in co-founding--along with author Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend--a grass-roots organization called Operation Iraqi Children (OIC). Sinise describes Operation Iraqi Children as "a grass roots program to provide concerned Americans with a means to reach out to Iraqi kids and help support our soldiers' efforts to assist the Iraqi people."

According to Sinise and Hillenbrand, their work began when U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq observed the plight of children who could not receive an adequate education owing to the serious lack of educational materials and school supplies in that unfortunate land.

Moved by compassion, many American soldiers took it upon themselves to help on their days off. They collected school supplies sent to them by family members, friends, and charitable groups back in the states, and then took the materials to village schools. Sometimes they even had to rebuild the schools, which were suffering from the effects of neglect and war.

Observing that a private effort was needed to pick up and continue what was clearly beyond the military's purview, Sinise and Hillenbrand founded OIC. Through OIC's School Supply Kit Program, American children, church groups, and other organizations help Iraqi children by gathering school supplies in local drives and then assembling them in kits according to OIC's instructions. The various groups then send supplies to the OIC warehouse to await shipment to Iraq. Participating soldiers then take them to Iraqi villages.

In the mission statement posted on the website of the organization he co-founded, Sinise related his experience accompanying soldiers who were participating in the school rebuilding in Iraq in 2003: "I have seen Iraqi kids climbing on our soldiers and hugging them and kissing them. I have seen their smiling faces and their attempts to say 'I love you' in broken English. The folks I saw had hope in their eyes and gratitude in their hearts for what was done for them."

Sinise and Hillenbrand remarked: "From the day that we launched the program, we have been inundated with correspondence from people across the nation who wanted to pitch in."

In addition to helping Iraqi children, Sinise, like a modern Bob Hope, has also done his share to support members of our military forces. In an interview with ABC News Internet Ventures, the actor noted that his role in playing the wounded Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump helped him empathize with wounded combat soldiers and facilitated his ability to talk with them. He has taken a sincere interest in the veterans: "We know what it was like for our Vietnam veterans to come back from war.... If they wore the uniform, they'd get spit on or whatever, or they were ashamed to wear their uniform. We never want that to happen to our veterans again, our service members. You know, it's an honorable thing to serve your country, to join up, to volunteer."

We concur completely.