NORTON ? The mother of a Missouri Army National Guard soldier stationed in Iraq has launched a campaign to improve what she says are horrible living conditions her daughter and the 159 others in her unit have faced.

Ilene Ankenman’s daughter, Spc. Patty Majors, of Gladstone, Mo., has been stationed in Baghdad since April, where she is serving with the 1139th Military Police Company.

Majors is part of an Army National Guard Unit from Harrisonville, Mo.

After receiving letters from Majors describing living conditions unlike any the soldier had previously seen in eight years of active duty with the Army, Ankenman decided she had to do something for her daughter. So she started a campaign of collecting supplies — including sugar, toilet bowl brushes and cleaner, sponges, soap and hygiene products, granola bars and precooked meat snacks — to mail to Iraq.

“When I started this, Patty wrote us and said bugs were eating them alive and they had no bathroom facilities except for putting two pieces of wood over a cardboard box and that’s what they used as a toilet.

“They got two bottles of water a day, one MRE (meal ready to eat) a day and no showers. She said it was three weeks before they could take a shower,” Ankenman said.

Ankenman has reached out to her fellow Norton residents, and so far they have mailed 320 pounds of supplies to the unit. But her campaign has not been limited to the Norton area. The concerned mother also wrote letters to U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

“I sent several letters, and I heard back from Sam Brownback’s office. Later, I heard from Jerry Moran’s office, but by the time I heard from his office, the unit had moved into a warehouse,” Ankenman said.

Within two weeks of talking to Brownback’s office, her daughter’s unit started getting two meals a day and 400 gallons of water for laundry and showers, she said. And, shortly after that, the unit gained access to a laundry facility.

Ankenman said she didn’t know if the sudden change in living conditions for the unit was because of her letters or if the change was coincidental. But she’s giving Brownback credit for it.

The unit’s living conditions are improving daily, Ankenman said. The soldiers have electricity and just received a microwave oven, she said.

The campaign “has improved their quality of life,” Ankenman said.

Ankenman was told Moran plans to survey the situation in Iraq later this month. His office said he would be visiting American troops to learn more about their morale and living conditions. And he’ll take the matter back to the Congress this fall.

Ankenman believes soldiers in the state National Guards deserve the same treatment as soldiers in the traditional branches of the military.

“At one point, the regular Air Force unit down the road from hers was getting cooked meals, ice and water. I think when our men and women are laying down their lives, the least we can do is give them more than two bottles of water and halfway sanitary conditions in which to live. I can support her needs, but I can’t support 160 soldiers. That’s the reason I started asking for help,” Ankenman said.