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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
It’s finally easy being green
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Louie Favorite / Staff
Kermit parachutes to the ground from atop an Iraqi Border Police fort near the Syrian border.
To get through war you need good body armor, good training and good support. You also need a good laugh.
Enter Kermit the Frog.
Click here to view a Kermit photo gallery.
Actually, that’s Corporal Kermit, of Company H, 121st Infantry, Georgia Army National Guard.
When did the Muppet get a rank? About the same time as Hotel Company’s Cpl. Patrick Heffernan.
Where Heffernan goes, Kermit goes. A digital photo album captures their travels: See Kermit peer through a rifle scope. See Kermit perched on the shoulder of Hotel Company’s Iraqi translator. See him in gunner turret of Heffernan’s Humvee. See him drift through air, parachute billowing against the blue Iraqi sky.
Heffernan e-mails the photos back to his wife, Andie, at home in Gwinnett County. She supports both corporals. When Cpl. Heffernan wanted his own personal Global Positioning System, she bought it. When he asked for a satellite phone he could take on missions, Andie cruised eBay until she found one for $900.
The same is true for Corporal Kermit’s battlefield needs.
Matter of fact, Kermit’s care packages are sometimes better stocked than Heffernan’s. Since arriving in Iraq last August, Kermit has received a .50 caliber rifle, combat knives, a helmet and canteen, all G.I. Joe accessories sized to fit his 12-inch frame. In his latest gift box from home was a parachute with harness. Coming next, a pinup calendar of Miss Piggy.
Out in the sand and dust, Kermit provides hours of entertainment for Company H soldiers. He’s also a goodwill ambassador of sorts. Heffernan said Iraqi children might not know who Kermit is, but when the Humvee pulls into a village, the sight of a frog in camouflage usually breaks the ice.
On a recent humanitarian mission near Tal Afar, Heffernan “secured” Kermit in the Humvee when Iraqi children caught wind of the well-appointed frog. They wanted to get their hands on the handsome green warrior.
The frog has been around for six years, plucked from toy store obscurity when Heffernan was in Ranger battalion at Fort Benning. Never hurts to have a mascot, particularly one that was beloved as a child. Back when things seemed safe and war was a game played in the backyard.
Heffernan is a big, strapping, good-looking guy. Manly man all the way. So there is risk in suggesting that his fuzzy green frog is a stand-in for the more traditional comfort toy: a teddy bear. But does it really matter if a grown man has a plush toy if it helps him get through the extreme stress of war? If it reminds him of home and of his beautiful wife and the life he is hopeful they will have, if he survives this tour of duty?
Heffernan said the green guy is his good-luck charm.
Andie agreed. “Oh, yeah, Kermit is coming back,” she says. “Absolutely.”
Staff writer Moni Basu contributed to this article from Iraq.
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