“Christmas means something different to everybody, and whether it's family-related or not, it brings up a lot of emotions and feelings for different people,” he said from his chair in the company's command post, next to the camp's airfield, where he parks his $24 million attack helicopter.

“For a lot of our soldiers,” he said, “this is their second or third timeover here. But for myself and a lot of other guys, it's our first time being away during the holidays, and I wanted to make something happen to help lift their spirits.” That's when parents got involved.

“My parents gathered a bunch of people together, and a lot of people from Florida knew I was here, and this is where all this support started,” Beissinger said.

In the months leading up to the holiday season, the Apache helicopter pilot his troops call “Captain Beis” was contacted by his parents, Stephen and Chris Beissinger, about possibly organizing an effort to support his soldiers in Iraq. His parents formed a coalition of about 15 families who sent toiletries and decorations for Halloween.

“These 15 families got out there and started spreading the word about us,” he said. “Word got out to different schools, to different churches, and basically all these people wanted to jump on the bandwagon and help support us. They wanted to do something for the next go-around.”

The “next go-around” was Christmas, and unsure of how much support he could get, Beissinger again contacted his parents, who quickly put a plan into action.

“All the soldiers were putting down, ‘Hey, I want an iPod. Hey, I want this,'” he said. “But some guys said they wanted to donate to charities, and at that point, it went beyond receiving gifts. These guys wanted to give back to the community. It took on a different meaning when all this started happening.” He cited Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 William Myrick, an Apache helicopter pilot from Victoria, Texas, as an example.

“He wrote down that he would like to donate to a women's shelter, and he would like to get some stuff for his kids,” Beissinger said. “Every single thing he asked

“This is by far the best Christmas I have had in Iraq,” he said. “I know for the soldiers, this definitely lifted their spirits to know that somebody actually went out of their way to support them.

”Meno received all five items on his wish list, including his No. 1 item: a guitar.

“In my opinion, it's just amazing to know that there are families willing to go that extra mile for our guys serving over here during the holidays.” said Army Capt. Michael Shaw, the company's commander, a native of Fremont, Calif. “Now, did this have to be something financial such as gifts? No. All of these families took the time to try to get to know the soldier they were sponsoring just by looking at their pictures, and they gave their best effort to personalize each and every gift. The families looked at the pictures, looked at the soldier's list and then just went to town.”