Imagine having so much fun at the largest U.S. military base in Iraq that an Army colonel says, "We almost forgot we were in a war zone."

In late March, thanks to $40,000 in video games, dozens of XBox consoles, Zunes, T-shirts and tons of esprit de corps, troops at Camp Anaconda spent three hours rocking out at  the I-Roq Band Tournament, crowning four combat engineers from North Dakota as America's first ostensible "Military Idols."

MSN Video from Soapbox shows a high-kicking guitarist, makeshift costumes and cheerleaders in combat boots, but the real story behind the "Rock Band" event is how heartfelt efforts by stateside Americans can make a difference.

The idea to help troops started with a minor car crunch in the parking lot of a New Jersey school five years ago. Alan Krutchkoff's wife, a school nurse, called him to explain that the school custodian had hit her vehicle – understandably distraught since she'd just learned that her son-in-law was being called to serve in Iraq.

Krutchkoff, clearly a big-hearted, big-picture guy, shared the story with a colleague who had been a special forces reservist. "Let's adopt this guy," Krutchkoff campaigned. "Let's send him stuff."

As a communications professional, Krutchkoff knows how to marshal forces and distribute a message. Plus he works for Unilever, the international manufacturer of food and household brands such as Wish-Bone, Lipton, Dove and Vaseline. With Holmes Brady, Krutchkoff established Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon (AaSP), a non-profit organization with more than 500 supporters far beyond their New Jersey Unilever office.

"We're Americans who care about our country and our troops," the AaSP Web site states. An addendum about the group's origins includes a simple statement from Krutchkoff: "At the Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon, we do more than put magnets on our cars. We really support our troops!"

I-Roq grew out of AaSP's Operation Xbox, one of several efforts over the years. Last autumn, anticipating the upcoming holidays, Krutchkoff was looking for ways to relieve soldiers' wartime stress and "bring some normalcy to their lives." He mentioned it to a Microsoft producer who was developing a video for MSN's relationship with Unilever brands. She forwarded their e-mail to Peter Proud, a Microsoft global account exec who had served in the British military.

Like most people involved in helping the troops, he downplays his part: "All I did was connect Alan to the right people and help if things became a little stuck."

One of the "right people" was Andy Coughlin, a Microsoft regional sales manager, who embraced the idea and hit the ground running.

"In just over 30 days we were able to rally team members from various groups across Microsoft and outside of Microsoft to pull together the first-ever Xbox 360 Rock Band competition," he said. "This project was very special and very meaningful to everyone."

Many people were involved (check the digital applause at the end of this Web page), but the upshot is eight four-person bands made their way through the 20 bands in the preliminaries to compete March 28 before five judges. The finalists had practiced their three songs often, working hard to "unleash their inner rock star." One band in the finals, called to duty in the middle of the contest, was unable to complete its three-song set but it will still receive prizes, which include T-shirts from XBox and MTV, another of the major sponsors. About 650 service members came to the concert competition, many scoring door prizes that included Web cams, digital frames, Frisbees and Girl Scout cookies.

Each member of the winning band received an XBox. DGI, or Dakota GI, comprised four GIs from the North Dakota National Guard's 817th Engineer Company: Staff Sgt. Nick Quam, Sgt. D.J. Rohrick, Sgt. Kendall Vetter and Spc. Mike Yem. Their winning set included "Flirtin' with Disaster" by Molly Hatchet and "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys.

Of course, civilians just can't drop in to the largest military base to witness the competition, but they can see it online and offer comments.

Wrote Col. Ralph Romine, commander of the Anaconda garrison, in an e-mail to all those who helped: "Folks will be talking about I-Roq 2008 for a long time after we leave ... You have no idea what this meant to us. Your support and care for us has been overwhelming. From the bottom of our hearts a big THANK YOU!"

You can join in the AaSP effort or look for ways to help in your community. And stay tuned: Microsoft plans to support I-Roq 2 next year.