Gary Sinise with OIC in Afghanistan

Ask Gary Sinise about an upcoming mystery on his hit show CSI:NY and he’ll perfectly politely take you through the twists and turns of the sinister ‘whodunit’. But mention his organization Operation International Children, and it’s like you are talking to another guy altogether. Sinise could not be more passionate about the organization he set up with author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) to bridge the gap between the US Armed Forces and local children in war zones around the world, and his reasons are more personal than you may think.

“I have Vietnam Veterans in my family, and I remember when they came home from war, it was very, very difficult for them.  They not only had to endure the battlefield, but then they had to come home to a nation that didn’t support them.  And I just don’t want that to happen to our troops again. I wanted to do everything that I could possibly do, to help support them and give them what would help them succeed in Iraq,” he says.

Sinise visited Iraq in 2003, early on in the conflict, where he witnessed the repercussions of war and neglect first hand. Dilapidated schools lacked windows, fans – even toilets. But after seeing the troops bring some school supplies to the kids, and watching them interact with each other, he came up with the idea for an organization called Operation Iraqi Children. “These kids that I saw had very, very little,” he says. “So, I thought, why don’t we start shipping some stuff to the troops?  And they can take them out to these schools and give them to the kids.”

Today OIC ships school supplies like backpacks, notebooks, folders and pencils to Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti and other places around the world, even changing the “I” in its name from Iraqi to International.

In the past six years, Sinise has been a witness to progress in the Middle East that we rarely read in the news. “Yes, there’s a lot of fighting, but what you don’t hear about is the amazing dedication of our army and military doctors or our civil affairs people in the military that are working cooperatively with these schools,” he says. “When I went to Afghanistan for this last trip, [in November 2009] I was in an area that had not had any attacks for ten months. So all they were doing was building schools, helping operate the hospitals, building roads, doing all kinds of things that you just never hear about.”

As for OIC, their work isn’t done. “We’re always looking for assistance and looking for help, as we continue to ship school supplies to our troops in various places around the world,” says Sinise. “These supplies come in very handy for the troops. It’s a great way to extend the hand of friendship and show the people in these countries that we’re there to help them.”

To help OIC, please visit www.operationinternationalchildren.org. OIC accepts monetary and supply donations as well as volunteer help for putting together the shipments in Kansas City.

Text: Carita Rizzo

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