Elementary students warm hearts of Soldiers
By Spc. Lorie Jewell
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 Staff Sgt. Norman Murphy listens to a question as he and Spc. John Marshall show second grade students pictures of their tour in Afghanistan. The 82nd Airborne soldiers visited Sterling Memorial School in Oneco, Conn. to thank students for writing to them while they fought in the Global War on Terrorism.
Spc. Lorie Jewell
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ONECO, Conn. (Army News Service, Nov. 5, 2003) -– When Sterling Memorial School students sat down last winter to write letters to a group of Soldiers serving in Afghanistan, reading consultant Jodi Ross wasn’t expecting anything more to come of the school-wide project.
Ross, who coordinated the mass mailing with school nurse Cheryl Risavich, thought of it as a one-time patriotic effort to let the troops know the kids were rooting for them. Some of the Soldiers thought differently. They wrote back.
The pen-pal relationships that developed during the year culminated Oct. 27 in “Operation Tribute to Freedom Day,” an all-day event that brought those soldiers to the tiny eastern Connecticut school to meet the 400-plus students in grades kindergarten through eight.
American flags lined the circular driveway and a sidewalk in front of the school for the arrival of Sgt. Maj. Bertram Vaughn, Staff Sgt. Norman Murphy, Spc.’s Michael Holmes and Alex Somosky, and Pfc.’s Robert Green and John Marshall of the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, now returned to Fort Bragg, N.C.
The day also included a visit by Staff Sgt. Brian Young, an Oneco native currently deployed in Iraq with his Hartford, Connecticut-based National Guard unit, the 143rd Military Police Company. Young, a bus driver for the Sterling School District in civilian life, was home on family-emergency leave and was invited to the event as a special guest.
In each of the 22 classrooms the soldiers visited, they stressed how much the students’ letters, cards and pictures lifted their morale. Murphy was the school’s link to the unit; his cousin, Nathaniel Droesch, teaches special education there.
“It was like Christmas, coming back from a mission and finding stacks of letters on our cots,’’ said Somosky. “We just want to thank you for taking the time to do that for us.”
It’s the soldiers that deserve the thanks, said Ross and other faculty members. Not just because they wrote back – which thrilled the students beyond belief – but for traveling from Fort Bragg, N.C., their home station, to spend a day with them. The visit was coordinated through Operation Tribute to Freedom, a Department of Defense initiative that works with community groups and organizations to recognize military members serving in the Global War on Terrorism.
An assembly kicked the day off with the school’s Sing and Sign Choir performing the National Anthem. State and local leaders offered special greetings to the Soldiers. Wade Hyslop, deputy speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives and Vaughn’s father, presented the group with an official citation from the state’s general assembly commending them for their service.
“We’ve been working on this for about two months, we’re so excited,’’ said Sterling class president Erica Vitale. “It’s so amazing that they’re here.”
The soldiers’ visit also drew a small contingent of local media, another amazing aspect of the day, said Vitale and her fellow class officers Sarah Beauchesne, Nicole Dumaine and Dana Bein.
“This is such a small school, this is a pretty big deal,” said Bein. “The only time we’ve been in the news before was when someone set a Port-A-Potty on fire.”
Throughout the day, children peppered the Soldiers with a plethora of questions ranging from silly to serious. Some were surprisingly difficult, said Vaughn – like the one about what the flag means to him.
“It really made me stop and think,’’ he said. “I told them it stands for everything I believe in, all of the freedoms we have in this country.”
One little boy asked Marshall if he was a natural blonde. When he quit laughing, Marshall assured him he was. A question from a second grade girl put a lump in his throat. She wanted to know why the soldiers risk their lives to help protect her.
“Because you’re worth it,’’ said Marshall.
The children’s affection and admiration caught the seasoned Soldiers by surprise. They left each classroom with handmade trinkets. Students wanted to shake the Soldiers’ hands, or get their autographs – on paper, shirts, shoes, hats and book bags. During a break, Holmes was talking to a reporter in the gymnasium when a first-grade girl gave his leg an impromptu hug.
“We sometimes forget how much kids look up to us, until today,” said Holmes. “It means a lot to see how much people care about what we do.”
The visit wasn’t just a one-day morale booster, Marshall believes. In the future, when the training gets tough or he’s on another deployment, he said he’ll just think about the children at Sterling Memorial School.
“Seeing those kids so happy to see us makes you realize why you’re doing what you’re doing,’’ said Marshall. “It puts a different perspective on things. It’ll definitely give me something to look back on later when I’m going through bad times.”
(Editor's note: Spc. Lorie Jewell is a member of the 107th MPAD, Florida National Guard, on active duty to support Operation Tribute to Freedom.)
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