Service learning

For Veterans Day, men and women in uniform, retired and current, talk to Mariners Elementary School students about the military. When Greg Montgomery visited Mariners Elementary School on Thursday morning, he brought more than 20 years of Army experience with him -- as well as a tiny shrapnel wound, sustained in Vietnam, on his back. But he also carried something else that represented the sacrifices his country has made.

In a dusty box a few days earlier, Montgomery found a faded book of ration coupons from World War II, the war in which both of his parents served. During the early 1940s, he explained to Valerie Henning’s second-grade class, those on the home front limited their intake of gasoline, food and other items to provide more for the troops overseas.

“During World War II, kids like you would go out and collect cans and tin and metal so they could make the things they needed to win the war,” Montgomery told the class.

Montgomery and his mother, Dorothy, a former radar specialist in the Navy, were two of the 26 current and former soldiers who visited Mariners on Thursday. The three-hour event was the brainchild of Jill Fales, a Mariners parent who wanted students to get more out of the holiday than just a day off.

“I told the principal that last year, my son did a worksheet for Veterans Day,” Fales said. “Can we do something more substantial this year? We make such a big deal of Halloween, but people think of Veterans Day as a three-day weekend.”

To gather as large a crowd as possible, Fales contacted the local American Legion post and put a notice in the school’s newsletter asking students to contact any veterans in their families. In the end, eight of the veterans who visited the school had children or grandchildren at Mariners.

The day began at 8:30 a.m. in the multipurpose room, where students and teachers ducked out of the rain to hear principal Pam Coughlin introduce the veterans -- and a handful of current enlistees -- onstage.

The gathering at the front of the room included servicemen and women from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Operation Desert Storm and other conflicts.

Some of the faces were familiar to the school community. Robert Carolan, who introduced himself to students as a veteran of the forgotten war in Korea, is the son of Mariners’ former crossing guard of 24 years.

After the morning assembly, the soldiers visited classrooms to talk to students about their experiences. Many, like the Montgomerys, brought mementos of their days in the service. Connie Rapp, a Vietnam Army veteran and member of American Legion Post 291, showed an array of his plaques and medals to the students.

“There were a lot of questions about what type of weapons I used in the service,” Rapp said after the visit. “One kid even asked me if I threw up a lot.”

The answer to the latter question, Rapp noted, was, “No.”

In her speech to the second-graders, Dorothy Montgomery spoke about the changing role of women in the military since World War II. She said that 60 years ago, women -- or WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), as the Navy called them at the time -- were not allowed on ships. As a radar technician, she spent much of her time literally on her hands and knees, drawing huge diagrams on the floor.

Now in her 80s, she urged other young women to follow in her footsteps.

“I love the Navy and have recommended it several times to girls who didn’t know what to do with their lives,” she told the class.

Students said they learned a number of things about military life from the veterans -- especially the uncomfortable parts of the job.

“It was great,” said third-grader Megan Moricca, 8, after hearing a presentation by a career helicopter pilot. “He told us about how hard it is to do things because he was in the hot desert with a fireproof jacket.”

Megan added that she often spent her Veterans Days calling her 22-year-old brother, Jeremy Wilson, who serves in the Coast Guard.

Sixth-grader Christina Jacques, 11, said she learned how to tell military time from her class’ speaker.

The granddaughter of a World War II serviceman, Christina said she hoped someday to join the Air Force.

Her classmate, Kasey Thompson, 11, said she was amazed to find that the military was a small society of its own.

“I learned that some people in the Army can be chefs,” she explained. “I thought they were just there for the war.”20051111iprkz9knKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Marine Cpl. Ian Voss, left, and Staff Sgt. Cass Spence, who each served in Iraq, show military rations to students Thursday. 20051111iprkzuknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Veterans listen as they are honored at Mariners on Thursday.