Army 1st. Lt. Nainoa Hoe of Honolulu hoped rag dolls made by students of a local school could bring joy to some children in war-torn Iraq.

Although he was killed by a sniper before the dolls arrived, his fellow soldiers ensured the dolls got to the right little hands.

Yesterday, a soldier and Hoe's father came to St. Andrew's Priory, where the dolls are made, to tell the students about the power of a little cloth and thread.

"We were getting ready to send him the dolls when he was killed," said his father, Allen Hoe, who served in Vietnam as an Army combat medic in 1967 and 1968. "His men picked up the ball during the rest of their tour."

His son was a 27-year-old platoon leader when he was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on Jan. 22, 2005.

With Allen Hoe yesterday was Command Sgt. Maj. Hector Davila, who told the students that the Iraqi children — even the boys — loved the dolls.

Davila, who is in Honolulu on R&R, serves in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. In Iraq, his unit replaced Nainoa Hoe's 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, which is out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

Davila's unit, coincidentally, is the same battalion that Nainoa Hoe's father served in during the Vietnam War.

Hoe said he was happy to have Davila and his wife at the school, seeing where some of the rag dolls were made. Nainoa Hoe believed in passing out candies and school supplies to the children wherever he was stationed as a goodwill measure, his father said. He always felt empathy for the children caught in the chaos of the war.

'AWESOME' PROJECT

Davila's unit has continued the tradition of passing out gifts of aloha from Hawai'i.

"It's awesome," Hoe said. "There are so many unique things that have happened since my son's death."

Said Davila: "Every time I go out on patrol I carry a big bag of these dolls with me. I tell the children that the dolls came from Hawai'i. They don't know where Hawai'i is, but they're happy to get the dolls."

When Davila went on leave he gave his replacement two huge bags filled with the cloth rag dolls to be passed out on patrol in Mosul.

15,000 DOLLS DELIVERED

The dolls are based upon a pattern created by Mary Page Jones, the wife of a retired Episcopal bishop who was an interim rector at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church. Through Jones' work, more than 15,000 dolls have been made and passed out to children in 22 countries, said Nora Kurosu, who is helping the students with the machine sewing.

Nainoa Hoe was a 1995 graduate of Kamehameha Schools, joined the reserves and was named U.S. Army Pacific Reserve soldier of the year with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry. He earned a master's degree from the University of Hawai'i College of Business Administration in 2003. In his last year at the University of Hawai'i, Hoe was ROTC battalion commander.

More than 650 mourners said farewell at his funeral at Kawaiaha'o Church in February 2005. Among them were political and business leaders, soldiers and ordinary people.

SPREADING ALOHA

At the Priory, mounds of white doll stuffing covered parts of the table yesterday where the students filled the finished dolls while others placed pattern pieces on bright green and orange fabric.

"So far we've mostly been cutting out the pattern," said Shauna Lim, an 11th-grader and Interact Club president. "On our good days we have about a half-hour to work on this. We didn't get to do much, but we wanted to do this project because we want to spread aloha internationally."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.