VILLA PARK : Graduates Revisited by Army Pal

Although Army Sgt. 1st Class Victor H. Shanks started out as just their pen pal during the Gulf War, for the sixth-graders at Villa Park Elementary he’s become a member of the family.

To honor that relationship and to be sure the Georgia-based trooper would be at their graduation ceremony Thursday, they worked for weeks selling chocolate bars to raise money to fly him here.

“When I found out he was coming, I was really excited. I went up and down my street yelling,” said Jill Graft, 12. “The whole school’s really ecstatic. You can always tell where Victor is--there’s always a crowd around him, cheering.”

After being mobbed all morning by picture-snapping parents and autograph-seeking students, Shanks, 30, said he never guessed what it would mean when he answered a letter addressed to “any soldier” from the then-fifth-graders at the Villa Park school.

A tank platoon commander who engaged Iraqi forces 17 times in the Euphrates River Valley, Shanks said it is “just wonderful, just to be with the students and going to their homes and staying with them and all their hospitality.”

This is the second time these 60 students have raised money to bring Shanks to the West Coast. He also flew out in May, 1991, after the war ended. As he did then, Shanks--who has four children of his own--is staying at the homes of students and spending his days at pool and beach parties with his adopted kin.

During the commencement program, he sat alongside the 60 graduates and listened as Principal Joseph Fortier read a letter from President Bush congratulating the students on their graduation and commending them for their letters to Shanks during the war.

Then Shanks, who stayed in civvies for his West Coast visit, took his place at the podium and gave each student in turn a diploma and a handshake. At the end of the ceremony, he received a diploma of his own as the school graduated him along with the class.

“This is to show that Sgt. 1st Class Victor Shanks has been promoted to Cerro Villa School,” Fortier said as he handed him the scroll. “Now, Victor, you are officially graduated from VPE and are a middle school person.”

Eric Brewer, 11, said Shank’s second visit is even more important because “it says that he really enjoys being out here. He really enjoys spending time with us.”

Fifth-grade teacher Ann Hammond, who organized the original letter-writing last year, said that although the students are a little older, and more reserved, they fail at being “cool . . . they still run to him.”

She also said she has been pleasantly surprised that the students maintained their close contact with Shanks. “I think they finally understand what all of their letters and concern meant to him in the first place,” she said. “They really did help him get through the times he was in.” And when he visited last year, she added, “I don’t know who got more out of it--Victor or the kids.”

Shanks said the letters made a difference in his life. Although he had planned to leave the Army last November, he said that his experiences with the students put a face to patriotism and encouraged him to stay in the service. “Believe it or not, they did. It made me really proud to be a soldier,” he said.