SpringfieldNewsSun.com

He arrived in Afghanistan 11 months ago, this Cedarville College graduate the soldiers call "Chaplain."

Carleton Birch, a major in the U.S. Army, is the deputy command chaplain for Combined Joint Task Force 76 at a large air base surrounded by snow-covered mountains.

Because of the treacherous conditions, most of the chaplains take helicopters to get out and visit the soldiers.

"No matter how much hardship our soldiers have, the Afghan people usually have it harder," Birch said in an e-mail. "They have been oppressed for many years, first with the Russians and later under the Taliban."

The married father of four stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., has also served as the key coordinator for the Blue Stars Mothers of America's Miami Valley Chapter 3, which has sent toys, school supplies and other items to help the Afghan children.

"When you see pictures of smiling children receiving gifts that Dayton residents have given, going to schools that Americans had built for them, drinking water from wells military engineers have supplied, I can't help but think that their eyes are opening up to a world outside of theirs — a world very different from their own, but not as evil as they may have been taught," Birch said. "I see this long war being won one adult and one child at a time."