Two Guardsmen were recently put to the test while removing damaged property from a home in rural Fayette County. Sergeant Jeffery Jenkins is a team leader and heavy equipment operator with Second Platoon, 119th Engineer Company (Combat Support Equipment) , W.Va. Army National Guard. He was leading a team of nearly a dozen soldiers from the 119th CSE along State Route 61 near Oak Hill.

"We began to load the debris from one house, when a lady approached," says Jenkins. "She didn't seem excited, but she mentioned that a metal box had been discarded when volunteers had helped remove water-damaged items from her parent's house."

Jenkins, 27, of Clarksburg, works for the National Guard at Benedum Airport in Bridgeport. He says the lady pointed to the debris pile where she suspected the box might have been located.

"I relayed the significance of the box to my soldiers, and told them to sort through the rubble," says Jenkins. "It took nearly an hour or hour and a half, until we found it."

Specialist Jeffery Clifton, 22, of Bridgeport, is a surveyor with Headquarters Platoon, 119th CSE and works for the National Guard at Benedum Airport, Bridgeport. He uncovered a mud encrusted metal box.

"It looked old and worn with all that mud on it," says Clifton. "I just wanted to find the box, and hadn't even thought about what could be in it. So when I found it, I took it to Sgt. Jenkins and he returned it the lady."

"We opened the box to check and see if it was the right box, it wasn't even locked," says Jenkins. "I opened it and there was a stack of dollar bills held by a paper clip, so I closed it and returned it to the lady."

"She thanked all of us and explained that her father was a local chapter president for the Red Cross, and that the money, approximately $10,000, had been raised for an emergency fund."

"The folks that live in the areas we've helped have all been very gracious, offering refreshments and food to us," says Jenkins. "All our soldiers appreciate helping them too, especially when they can help actually recover something, instead of throwing it away."

It may be a small gesture to return an item from the mounds of debris left by this month's flooding, but it demonstrated the quality of the soldiers helping during OPERATION SOUTHERN STORM '01.

Nearly 2,000 soldiers and airmen from the West Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee National Guards are helping with the recovery efforts in southern W.Va.