Thanks to homegrown Ha-wai'i efforts, Schofield Barracks "Joes" serving in Iraq are getting a fresh cup of Kona joe courtesy of Big Island coffee growers. Hawai'i Marines also will benefit from the effort.

Since February, Gathering of Eagles Hawai'i, a troop support organization, has sent more than 100 pounds of coffee to Hawai'i Stryker brigade soldiers in Iraq.

Robert Gowan of Captain Cook, the state coordinator for Gathering of Eagles, said there are commitments for another 200 pounds over the next two months.

About 4,000 Stryker brigade soldiers are on a 15-month deployment just north of Baghdad.

Gowan asked Kona coffee farmers and wholesalers to donate. Operation Warrior Wake Up started out with five farmers each giving Gowan 5 to 10 pounds of coffee.

"Together, as a community, we may be able to help out and reward our dear soldiers with a little taste of home each day," Gowan said on the organization's Web site, hawaii.gatheringof eagles.org.

Stryker brigade public affairs wrote a story about the Kona coffee effort, saying that although coffee is available at the PX or at coffee shops at Camp Taji, the Kona coffee sent to them adds meaning to the taste.

"Operation Warrior Wake Up is about how local Hawaiian businesses support the troops (to) get through the everyday grind," said Capt. Ronnie Geronimo, who's with the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment.

Geronimo added that it really means a lot to have support from Hawai'i. With a lawsuit filed against the Stryker brigade, "at one point, we didn't even know if the Stryker brigade was ever going back there (to Hawai'i)" after the deployment, Geronimo said.

Gathering of Eagles also is working on sending French-press coffee pots to the troops, and expanding its coffee outreach to Hawai'i Marines in Iraq.

Operation Jarhead Java/Kona for the Corps is an effort on the part of The Honolulu Advertiser, KGMB9 and Gathering of Eagles.

The Advertiser is supplying eight coffee presses to each of five companies with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, and KGMB is supplying the coffee.

Gathering of Eagles is arranging for the roasting and mailing of coffee each month. Coffee presses and coffee will be mailed to each company. About 1,000 Hawai'i Marines with the 2nd Battalion are in western Iraq.