WATERLOO - Five years. Two thousand boxes. Nineteen tons of snacks, toiletries, DVDs, Frisbees, caps and shirts. And an immeasurable amount of heart.

That's what Julie Ehlers and several hundred of her closest friends - including many she's never met - have poured into Iowa's Bravest, a project to send holiday gift boxes to local troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ehlers started the project after the Iraq war began. Every time, the effort's just as hard. Every time, people help. And every time, she's blown away by the support.

Wednesday was no exception.

"It's hard to believe after five years you keep coming back," Ehlers said. "Thanks a lot for your commitment and your support of our soldiers.

Several hundred people, ranging from Cub Scouts to Korean War veterans, from grandparents to grandkids, crammed into United Auto Workers Local 838 to man an assembly line to pack another 320 gift boxes. It was handled with John Deere-like precision. And no wonder. The project was started by a group of wage and salaried John Deere Waterloo workers. Each item has a designated spot in the box.

"I've never seen people pack a box perfect like this," said Craig Goetsch, customer service supervisor at the Waterloo Post Office.

Even postal employees are fired up to receive the boxes, Goetsch said. They've arranged travel for the boxes weeks in advance through Chicago, for delivery in Iraq in three days

The enormity of the undertaking was not lost on Sgt. Jason Boesen, a medic with the Iowa Army National Guard's Waterloo-headquartered 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, which returned from 17 months' duty in Iraq at the end of the July. He's been on the receiving end of the gift boxes.

Boesen has relatives still in Iraq, two brothers who made a tour of duty in the Sinai Peninsula in 2003 and a brother in Kosovo.

"It's a really small way for me to say thank you to these people that have put their effort and time and money into this and made us feel pretty special being away from home," he said. "Especially a large town like Waterloo, you know? People showed they cared this way. The more I can say thank you a little bit to each one of these people, that's why I'm here."

Many knew how he felt. Stephen W. Thorpe was one of them. The Waterloo financial representative and former school board member stood out among the blue-collar crowd as he helped pack boxes in his business suit. His son, U.S. Army Capt. Stephen A. Thorpe, is serving his fourth tour of duty in Iraq, as a company commander with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Both the elder and younger Thorpes are former 1/133rd members.

The younger Thorpe has been awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat and the Purple Heart for combat wounds, both earned during a 2003 firefight in Karbala. He has a young son he has not yet seen.

"That's tough on grandpa," said the elder Thorpe, who recently visited his grandson, with his son overseas. It's also tough that some politicians and the national media ignore the schools, hospitals and other improvements in people's lives his son and other troops are trying to bring about.

The Iowa's Bravest volunteers help "make it work" and them some, another returned 1/133rd member said.

"To see all you guys, this means so much to me, for everybody that's over there right now, everybody that's served over there," said Sgt. Denver Foote, also a John Deere employee.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.