‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ focuses on efforts for troops.
By: Lea Kahn
Fame or at least, coverage on television is fleeting.
That’s what students in Sue Rooney’s third-grade class at the Lawrenceville Elementary School learned last week.
The students, who have been writing to a group of soldiers stationed in Iraq, were filmed by a CNN crew for a segment on the "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show that illustrated how citizens at home are supporting the troops overseas. The segment focused on the AdoptaPlatoon program, in which citizens send "care" packages to the soldiers.
The children were excited when they learned Monday that the film crew was scheduled to visit their class the following day, Ms. Rooney said. The class had been recommended to the crew by township resident Elaine Harmon, who is active with AdoptaPlatoon.
Most of the footage of the LES class, however, ended up on the cutting room floor.
It was the footage of Ms. Harmon, who was interviewed separately by the same crew last week, that made it into the show.
Correspondent Peter Viles of the "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show noted in introducing the Dec. 24 segment that "in this season of giving," there are citizens who are making sure that the soldiers overseas are not forgotten. The segment began with a group of Florida students who gathered items to send to a U.S. Air Force squadron in Iraq.
Then, Mr. Viles turned to the story of Ms. Harmon who he called "the champion of troop support," and her involvement with AdoptaPlatoon. Ms. Harmon has "adopted" 10 platoons, making her the platoon mom to 250 soldiers in Iraq.
In her segment, Ms. Harmon said she writes to the soldiers and sends them care packages. It is important to send them packages, so they know that they have the citizens’ support, she told the CNN news crew.
But the U.S. Defense Department does not endorse citizens’ preparing care packages on their own, because it raises security concerns, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John Moline told CNN. Citizens should take advantage of online opportunities, such as www.DefendAmerica.mil, he suggested in the segment.
Nevertheless, Ms. Harmon continues to send care packages to her 10 platoons and Ms. Rooney’s students continue to write to soldiers in U.S. Army 1st Lt. Larry Alfano’s platoon of military police.
In fact, Ms. Harmon recommended the LES class to the CNN news crew.
CNN called LES Principal Judy McLaughlin on Dec. 22 to ask whether they could visit the K-3 school, located on Craven Lane, and film the class, Ms. Rooney said. The principal agreed and the news crew a reporter, a cameraman and a sound man turned up outside Room 120 at 10:05 a.m. Dec. 23.
"It was so interesting," Ms. Rooney said. "There are 16 students and they are all rather chatty. When they tell you something, they will go on and on. (But) they were speechless. They were so awed this was the TV camera."
Toward the end of the crew’s one-hour visit to the classroom, the students began to warm up, Ms. Rooney said. The classroom began to bustle with activity, she said.
The reporter spoke to four or five children, Ms. Rooney said. Although she tried not to eavesdrop, she said she overheard them talking about the reasons they write to the soldiers. For example, they would like to have the world at peace and they know the soldiers are trying to help, she said.
The children said they know they are helping the soldiers by writing to them, because their letters are helping to keep the troops in touch with life in the United States, she said. The students write to them about their soccer games and other everyday events, she said.
The cameraman also roamed around the classroom, filming the students as they wrote their latest letters to the soldiers, Ms. Rooney said. He filmed them as they ran to her to ask how to spell a word, she said.
The cameraman also filmed all of the children holding up placards that bore their names in Arabic, she said. Lt. Alfano translated their names into Arabic in one of the letters he wrote to them, she said.
That portion of the crew’s visit to the classroom made it onto the airwaves, Ms. Rooney said. It was used as a "teaser" Tuesday for the Wednesday night "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show, she said.
"We watched ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ Christmas Eve (Dec. 24)," Ms. Rooney said of herself and her family. "We were glued to the TV for that hour. I am sure the children were watching, too. We are happy that (the interview with) Elaine Harmon was shown."
Acknowledging that the children likely were disappointed that they received very little air time, Ms. Rooney said she plans to tell them that the CNN news crew also was probably disappointed, too.
She said she will explain to the children that "this is the way the news works."
Ms. Harmon said she, too, was disappointed that most of the tape of the children ended up on the cutting room floor. She said she was responsible for directing the crew to that class, adding that she was there while the crew filmed the children.
"The children were so excited," she said. "They were ecstatic to be on CNN and to have the TV crew come (into the classroom). I like the idea of getting AdoptaPlatoon out to the public. It also shows that children can do things."
Meanwhile, the CNN crew spent about four hours with her, Ms. Harmon said. They visited her home, where she has one room set aside for her AdoptaPlatoon activities. She calls it the "soldier room." This is where she assembles the packages that she sends to her 10 adopted platoons.
Those packages are filled with a variety of items, such as candy, magazines and cards. There are some "no-no’s" that cannot be sent, such as alcoholic beverages, pornographic material and pork anything that could be offensive to Muslims, she said.
"For somebody to send a package to ‘Any soldier’ that’s different," Ms. Harmon said. "It has to be sent to a specific soldier. You have to fill out a U.S. Customs Agency form that is an inventory of what is inside the package."
The CNN segment last week may have given the impression that AdoptaPlatoon is doing something that is against the wishes of the Pentagon, but it is not so, Ms. Harmon said.
In fact, AdoptaPlatoon received the Newman’s Own Award for Contributions to Military Quality of Life at the Pentagon in 2002, according to AdoptaPlatoon’s Web site, www.adoptaplatoon.org.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles S. Abell made the presentation.
"We are very proud of AdoptaPlatoon, and we want to do what is best for the troops," Ms. Harmon said. "We know we make a difference, and they appreciate knowing that we care about them and pray for them."