KINDNESS SPREADS TO PANAMA THANKS TO NATIONAL GUARD UNIT

Some acts of kindness involve more sweat than others.

Take the soldiers of the 1140th Engineers Battalion of the Missouri National guard who have spent the last two weeks scratching out a narrow road through a Panama jungle to provide a small village access to medical services.

The village, called Valle Risco, has had an infant-mortality rate of more than 40 percent mainly because the villagers had to travel by horseback through the jungle to the nearest medical facility, Maj. Ken MacNevin, spokesman for the Missouri National Guard, said.

Building this road, which had to be constructed with extra care to minimize damage to the surrounding jungle, has already taken more than five weeks of work from three rotations of Guardsmen. They are from the 135th Engineers Group, many of which are from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Farmington and Sikeston.

MacNevin said the 1140th Battalion was requested by name for this job by the U.S. military leadership in Panama because of the reputation it has gained over the past 10 years.

"This unit, and Missouri people, are held in high regard for the kind of work they do," MacNevin said. "This unit is known by people as high up as the four-star level."

The latest rotation, which consists of 47 soldiers, will return to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport at 3:45 p.m. Sunday after two weeks of 12-hour work details in the heat of an equatorial jungle, sleeping on cots and eating army rations.

"We expect the families of these soldiers to be at the airport to great them when they return," MacNevin said. "But we'd like to extend that invitation to anyone who would like to welcome these men back home."

The last rotation of the 1140th to work on this project leaves Saturday to put the finishing touches on the road and break down the small camp that has housed the soldiers since the operation began.

The National Guard only requires two full weeks a year, and one weekend a month, of training from its soldiers. MacNevin said the members of the 1140th receive indispensable experience on these trips into the jungle.

"This is the only way to learn to do this type of operation," he said. "You can't practice this type of thing. We're 1,000 miles from the nearest parts store and four hours from the nearest decent medical facility."

The local residents, many of whom work alongside the National Guard soldiers, reap the rewards of this experience.

"This could be called a planned act of kindness," MacNevin said.