Heading to Iraq with a Teddy Bear and M-4 rifle

Houston Chronicle:

Spc. Migdalia Cabrera clutched a teddy bear in her right hand and an M-4 rifle in her left.

In a few hours, the 20-year-old Texas Army National Guard soldier from Houston and the chocolate-brown teddy bear named Jonathan would be boarding a plane to Baghdad to start a nine-month mission in Iraq.

It was Cabrera's first deployment, and she was a little nervous.

Over the past few weeks, 3,000 Texas troops from the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Houston have passed through a Persian Gulf air base on their way to Iraq. From Baghdad International Airport they would be ferried to bases all over the country. The brigade's missions will include Green Zone security, detainee operations, force protection and the transportation of people and equipment from the remaining American bases.

On Saturday night, Cabrera's platoon had been told to wait inside Tent No. 3 until it was time to board a plane. Nobody knew when they'd get the order to move out.

Some soldiers slipped outside to smoke or to buy one last Big Mac at the McDonald's on base. Others watched movies or played games on laptops balanced atop rucksacks. A few napped, crammed into metal chairs or nestled between duffel bags and rifles.

Next to Cabrera, her friend Spc. Savanna Garcia, 23, of Lubbock, clutched her own teddy bear to her flak vest to protect it from Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Preston, 36, of Houston. Every few minutes the sergeant made a playful swipe at the stuffed toy. He warned Garcia that the bear would never make it to Iraq.

“You better get that bear a parachute,” he teased her.

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I can not imagine a Marine going into a war zone with a Teddy Bear whatever their gender. It is just unthinkable. It certainly raises questions about the maturity level of the soldier.

That said, the Marines in Vietnam did refer to the soft poncho liners as Teddy Bears.