WATERLOO -- It was a welcome sight for James Bodensteiner's desert-sore eyes.

He's a sergeant first class with the Iowa Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry "Ironman Battalion," serving in Iraq. He's been in the Guard 20 years. He's also worked at John Deere's Waterloo operations since 1998, in the Foundry and the East Donald Street Tractor Works.

The 20-year Guardsman got a little taste of home when he pulled convoy duty recently. A bumper sticker on the armored vehicle he was assigned to caught his eye.

It was a patch of green in a sea of desert tan camouflage.

Not just any green, but John Deere green.

The sticker said. "My Other Vehicle is a John Deere Tractor," with the Deere logo.

"I thought, what better luck charm can you get before going into harm's way?" Bodensteiner wrote in a Fourth of July e-mail to the Courier from Iraq.

One of Bodensteiner's comrades on the vehicle, Spc. Mike Elofson, a Nebraskan, "put the sticker on 'cause his uncle is a big farmer in Nebraska," he said. Also accompanying Bodensteiner in the vehicle was Staff Sgt. Russell D. Houk of Cedar Rapids. Houk and Elofson are assigned to a transportation company from Nebraska.

Bodensteiner had "pulled a few strings" and got on that vehicle in the convoy in order to transfer to a different base after his air transportation kept getting canceled.

"I'd like to say hi the guys in Department 635 at the Donald Street site and the Foundry and of course the folks from Iowa's Bravest," Bodensteiner said. Iowa's Bravest is a group of union and nonunion John Deere workers and other community members who have been sending huge gift packages of snacks, toiletries, games and other knickknacks to the troops since the Iraq war began in March 2003. They have sent more than 1,100 such packages, including more than 450 this past holiday season.

"Getting mail over here is like nothing that I can describe. You get a letter from home and its an escape, a way to keep attached with the real world," Bodensteiner wrote. "When you get a package no matter how big it is its like Christmas or your birthday. I am actually proud of John Deere and the union (United Auto Workers Local 838) for helping make those boxes fly, not to mention all the other establishments and companies and of course the volunteers."

The 1/133rd, part of the 34th "Red Bull" Division, is conducting convoy escorts. Since arriving in Iraq, the Ironman Battalion has driven more than 62,500 miles and conducted 200 convoy escort missions, battalion commander Lt. Col Ben Corell of Strawberry Point said in a telephone press conference last week. They are at Camp Al Asad, about 150 miles west of Baghdad.

Bodensteiner also was part of the Ironman detachment that was assigned to an international peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula in 2003. "I think that some of the things we learned about the region and the language has been helpful in this endeavor," he said. "This is my second deployment to this region and the Guard has taken me all over the world. I have been to Germany and Alaska not to mention California and several other states."

Bodensteiner is likely to retire from the Guard after the Ironman Battalion is anticipated to return, in mid-2007.

He didn't want to talk about troop morale and the resistance they are facing. "I am not gonna touch those cause it varies so much day to day," he said. "As far as the men they are here doing a good job and will continue to do it until our leaders change the mission or tell us to go home."

He encouraged support for Iowa's Bravest. Co-organizer Julie Ehlers said Bodensteiner won't have to look far for another John Deere bumper sticker.

" I sent Jim a 40-plus pound box last week and included one of these bumper stickers in it so that he can have his very own," Ehlers said.

"We have two John Deere employees in the 133rd and I know of other employees that have family members -- husbands, sons, nephews - there too," Ehlers said. "Since we have 250 men from the Waterloo unit, I'm sure there are many other families in our area that are connected to this unit, too. … With 650 men from our surrounding communities in Iraq right now I think this may be the largest number of men that we've ever had there since the war began."

With that many troops serving overseas, Iowa's Bravest has started raising funds again for troops' gift packages this upcoming holiday season -- possibly the group's most challenging effort to date. The group is selling cook books. as well as "Support Our Troops" and "Thank You For Your Service" flags, on which family members may have a soldier's name embroidered. "It's a great way to personalize the flags and give the families an opportunity to honor their soldier," Ehlers said.

"Every year I hope the project will be the last." Ehlers said. "Fundraising gets harder because I think people are really trying to forget that we still have a war going on. Our soldiers and their families certainly don't."

More information about Iowa's Bravest, and how to purchase cookbooks, flags and otherwise support local troops and read their expressions of gratitude, can be obtained at www.iowasbravest.org.

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