Letters From Mideast Soldiers Stir the Feelings of Students

For a small group of students at Thousand Oaks High School and Acacia Elementary School, U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf are no longer just a nameless, faceless group of khaki-clad men and women in a faraway desert, glimpsed on the evening news.

They have become real people, with families to worry about, memories to recall, advice to impart and fears to conquer.

Such as Jeffery Bauc, 20, a Marine lance corporal, who told Erin Larisey of Acacia that he shared her love for reading and encouraged her to pursue her dream to be a writer.

Or Marine Lance Cpl. Frankie Sellner of Sleepy Eye, Minn., a 24-year-old combat motorcycle messenger who spoke of the dangers of being lost in the Saudi desert.

And Marine Sgt. G. W. Clites, who told Niki Zewe about 18-hour days in which sleep is a “luxury.”

Several weeks ago, as part of school assignments, students sent letters to military personnel stationed in the Middle East. Permitted to write about any topic they chose, many told the troops about Thousand Oaks, their families, their interests and their school activities. Letters were mailed to unnamed soldiers and distributed by the Armed Forces.

Pupils in Anne Graham’s sixth-grade class at Acacia, who wrote as part of an English assignment, have received 10 responses so far.

At Thousand Oaks High School, the 175 sophomores and juniors wrote as a requirement for Ellen Droshe’s history classes.

“I feel, as history teachers, we have a responsibility to make students aware of civics--whether we feel it’s wrong or right to be there,” Droshe said.

The responses--about 20 to date--have been received enthusiastically by the students, who read them aloud in class, Droshe said. They are often eye-openers about dramatic cultural differences between the Arabian peninsula and the U.S., she said.

“I found out that men cannot speak with women in public, and there’s a public beating if you get three speeding tickets,” said Heather Dempster, a 16-year-old junior at Thousand Oaks High.

Not only did she receive a letter from Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin Kishner, she received an invitation from Kishner’s mother in San Luis Obispo to have dinner with the family on Nov. 16.

“I was really excited and surprised I received something like this back,” said Heather, who is planning to accept.

She said she feels a kinship with Kishner because both have lived in the Detroit area, and she has many friends in San Luis Obispo, his hometown.

Acacia Principal Gail Lowe said many of the letters were so touching, “I started to cry.”

Marine Lance Cpl. Shannon Louws told Kelly Goebel of Acacia that his wife Jacque, of Twentynine Palms, “is hangin’ in there and giving me lots of support.”

But he also spoke of the uncertainty of the Persian Gulf situation.

“We have to be on the move at a moment’s notice,” he wrote. “We move every day to three days. . . . We don’t know when and if we are to go up north into Kuwait.”

Wrote Sellner, the combat motorcycle messenger: “The hard part of the job is always knowing where I’m at, so I don’t get lost. It’s a big desert out here, and a person doesn’t want to get lost.”

Marine Cpl. Terrance Patterson admonished Acacia’s Danielle Bancroft to “Listen to your mom and dad, even though they can be a pain sometimes. They know best.”

With rumors of military action increasing, some students say they now are worried about the fate of their new pen pals. “Now that I’ve received a letter from someone, now I know how they fell and what they’re going through, I’m concerned,” Dempster said.