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thedrifter
03-05-08, 08:41 AM
Soldiers greet students
By Dan Berrett
Pocono Record Writer
March 05, 2008 6:00 AM

STROUDSBURG — Two members of the military, who are on their way to Iraq for the first time, visited a second-grade classroom on Tuesday for Read Across America Week.

Andrew Kennedy, 21, a private first class with the Army's military police, wore camouflage as he read "I'm Not Going to Get up Today," by Dr. Seuss.

His friend, Andrew Beaman, 19, a private first class with the Marines, sat in a crisp uniform nearby as 17 eager faces in Lynsey Cyphers' classroom at B.F. Morey Elementary School looked on.

Cyphers met Beaman through his father. Her students began corresponding with him after he enlisted and started boot camp. Beaman and Kennedy are childhood friends from Belvidere, N.J.

The two came home briefly before they ship out to Iraq within the next two months.

After Kennedy finished reading the book, the students peppered them with questions for about 20 minutes, including the following exchanges:

"Where do you live?"

"Do you do hikes?"

"Do you have any pets?"

"Where do you sleep?"

"I sleep in a cot," Kennedy said.

"On a sleeping bag," Beaman added.

"How long do you think the trip (to Iraq) might take?" Cyphers asked her students.

"Five hours." "Three days." "Sixteen days."

"About 20 hours," the soldiers answered.

"What do you eat?" a girl asked.

"We have a chow hall, like your lunch room" Beaman said. "We get these packs called MREs (meal, ready to eat). We put water on them. It's not that good at all."

"What are those medals for?"

"What does it say on your uniform?"

"When you wear this uniform, this is your first name," Kennedy said, pointing to his last name on the right side of his chest. "This is your last name," he said, indicating the words, "U.S. Army." "Your first name pretty much gets erased."

"Do you have houses?"

"Houses?" answered Beaman. "I have a barracks."

"How do you wash?"

"You know when you were a baby and your mom used baby wipes?" Kennedy asked. "That's how you shower — for a couple of weeks."

"What do you hide behind in a fight?" a soft-spoken girl asked.

"Anything and everything that'll make you safe," Kennedy said.

"Do you have guns?" a boy wondered.

"I'm an artillery cannoneer," Beaman said. "It has 100-pound shells that shoot from 20 miles away."

"I have an M-4, a pistol and knives," Kennedy said.

"Do you have a gravity camera?" a boy asked.

"A gravity camera?" Beaman answered. "I've never heard of that, I'm sorry. I have a bayonet that attaches to the end of a gun."

"How do you stay in touch with family?" a boy asked.

"You get to write letters. Every once in a while you get to go use a webcam," Kennedy said.

Cyphers and two students lugged out a box filled with candy, crackers, beef jerky and aspirin.

"What do you say to them for coming in?" Cyphers asked her students.

"Thank you," they said.

"What do you say for what they do for us?" she asked.

"Thank you."

One boy noticed the dog tag stuck in Kennedy's right boot. "Why do you have that there, but not there?" he said, pointing to the other boot.

Kennedy paused. "Well, if something bad ever happens to me, they can identify me."

Ellie