Being a Marine in Iraq may be the toughest job on the planet. But there's one thing that can apparently improve the hot, stressful, often boring conditions they endure: water guns.
Chris Smith is on his third tour in Iraq. To make things a little better and help him beat the heat, his mom Kim sent him a Super Soaker water gun back on his first tour in 2007.
“Sometimes it was like 120 degrees, so the water gun was nice," she said.
But one wasn’t enough.
"While he was talking to me there were kids, other Marines, in the background going, 'Well I want one, too, Mom.'"
She collected cash around her Staunton, Va. office, receiving $700 in just one day. Smith used that to send 40 water guns to Chris and his fellow Marines.
"They sent me pictures of them goofing off and playing with them, looking all serious like they're real guns."
Now, Chris is with a different unit – and he wants more water guns. Late last week, Kim posted an update on “Operation Super Soaker” on her Facebook page, and the support started pouring in.
Smith is adding friends online all the time, and she's collecting donations until June 12. She hopes with their help, a new group of Marines who call her "mom" can cool down in the war zone.
"I don't even have a limit," Smith said. "There's so many kids over there. I want to send as many as I can."
