Dolls absorb troops’ stress

CAYCE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina grandmother has become a sensation among stressed-out U.S. military men and women around the globe by sending the most incongruous of gifts: pliable, google-eye dolls.

Not that soldiers, Marines and airmen are doing much cuddling with her hand-stitched, foot-tall playthings. Carol Davis’ “Dang-it-Dolls” are built to take punishment from homesick, frustrated troops, and her work is getting rave reviews.

“The legs are shaped so you can grasp onto them,” Air Force Staff Sgt. Rachel Staub wrote in a recent e-mail recalling her homesick days based in the United Arab Emirates. “It returned with me to the States with an eyeball missing and the stitching around the legs loose with some of the stuffing coming out.”

The little doll “was used mostly for laughs and to keep my mind off being homesick,” said Sgt. Staub, of Melbourne, Fla. “It brought a smile to all our faces.”

Nearly 17,000 of the goofy dolls have been shipped around the world in the four years since Mrs. Davis made her first one and sent it as a joke to her grandson, who was in the Air Force then in Aviano, Italy.

“I thought it would get a rise out of my grandson, ‘Why are you sending me a doll?’” Mrs. Davis said. “But after I sent ‘em, I got messages back: ‘Can you send us some more?’ ”

Mrs. Davis’ grandson, 26-year-old Senior Airman Thomas Hagmaier, estimates he’s given out between 1,000 and 1,500 of the dolls on his own.

“Everybody around me asks for one,” he said from his base in Little Rock, Ark. “And I tell them, even if they destroy one, that’s what it’s for. I can give you more.”

The foot-tall figures are made during periodic gatherings of military spouses, college students and friends who form assembly lines in Mrs. Davis’ garage in this small city outside Columbia. Piles of dolls covered tables and bookshelves. Some seemed anemic, awaiting stuffing and decoration. Boxes of yarn, fabric and craft paint tubes lined the walls.

Each doll is decorated at the whim of its maker. Patterns are cut out of fabric ranging from checked gingham to fuzzy fur. Yarn often sprouts from the top of the doll’s head, and smiles or stuck-out tongues are dabbed on with craft paint.