The Associated Press

PADUCAH - Comrades of a soldier serving in Iraq joined ranks with other volunteers to make things better for his family back on the home front.

The soldiers skipped their unit's family picnic Saturday to help make repairs and improvements to the home of Sgt. Tom Simpson, who is driving a fuel truck in Iraq.

The volunteers included members of his U.S. Army Reserve unit, Alpha Company 3-398, along with neighbors, friends and members of New Covenant Church and St. Francis de Sales Church.

Simpson's wife, Kathy, and their four children live in the house.

The work crew responded to messages in church bulletins that said, "She has a honey-do list and no honey to do it."

The green house got a coat of taupe paint, new light fixtures in the hallway, a new mailbox, a new bathroom sink and dimmer switch and a new front door. Workers fixed a broken windowpane, a leak under the kitchen sink and a wobbly handrail.

"It is wonderful," Kathy Simpson said.

When her husband left for duty last December, Simpson said friends told her to call if she needed anything, even if it was in the middle of the night. She said she never felt right calling on people, though. It took a neighbor to convince her that it was OK after roofing problems began.

A friend had promised to complete the roof, but never finished the work, she said, and water leaked into the house when it rained. A pile of old shingles and other debris had been left outside the Simpsons' back door.

Steve Jackson balanced on a narrow stepladder in his Army boots, hanging a light fixture.

"He's always been good to me," he said of Tom Simpson. "I'm glad to help him out any way I can."

Johnny Stearns, a retired contractor turned home inspector, knelt on the floor, his tool belt dragging against it. He peered at a crack under the new front door.

"I know there's a sacrifice being made by the head of the home, and I'm over here taking care of the things he needs taken care of while he's over there taking care of the things we need taken care of," he said.

Kathy Simpson hopes to keep the hard work a surprise from her husband "if my little ones can keep it a secret," she said.

Tom Simpson is expected home on a two-week leave next month.

She said he'll probably get emotional when he sees the house, but it might take him a little while to notice. "To tell you the truth," she said, "he's going to be looking at me, not the house."