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thedrifter
04-02-09, 08:20 AM
4th-grade class to be pen pals with Marine in Iraq

JEFF BRANSCOME THE FREE LANCE-STAR
Published: April 2, 2009

STAFFORD -- Nine-year-old Matthew Cabell is used to having a long-distance relationship with his dad.

Soon, many of his classmates at Margaret Brent Elementary School in Stafford County will get a sense of what it feels like.

Matthew's father, Lt. Col. Joseph Cabell, who is beginning his third tour of duty in Iraq, will be pen pals with his son's fourth-grade class.

Matthew's teacher, Rosanna Keppeler, came up with the idea. Last school year, she said, her class was pen pals with a student's cousin serving in Iraq.

"If there's a sense of community, it makes that separation tolerable," she said.

She knows.

Her husband, John, served in Iraq from April 2006 until April 2007.

On Friday, she relived what she calls the "angst of deployment" as Cabell introduced himself to her class. He gave everybody his mail and e-mail addresses.

"Just be patient," he told the class. "I don't always have access to e-mail there."

He told the attentive students that things are improving in Iraq, and the country won't need help from the United States in the near future.

He told them he joined the Marines at 19 and has been stationed all over the world, including in Japan and Hawaii.

And he told them about "a very bad man" who ruled Iraq for a long time.

Any questions?

"Are you going to do something exciting this weekend?" one girl asked.

"I will try," said the soft-spoken Cabell, a commanding officer who oversees more than 1,000 Marines.

He's been training in California since October and took leave last week. He'll fly back to California and expects to travel to Iraq later in the week.

He said he'll spend much of his time in Anbar province and won't return home until November.

During a recent visit to the school, Cabell asked the students what they'd heard about Iraq on the news. One boy mentioned a suicide bomber.

"That rarely happens right now," Cabell assured the class.

More than anything, he said, he will "mentor, coach and teach" Iraqis to prepare them for the eventual departure of U.S. forces.

Matthew wore a Marine Corps sweatshirt and proudly smiled for much of his dad's talk.

Cabell's wife, Hessy, joined him at Margaret Brent with their other son, 3-year-old Jonathan.

In his letters, Matthew said, he'll encourage his father to be safe and to watch out for anything suspicious.

Keppeler said the project will improve students' writing skills and make the situation a little easier for Matthew. She told the class to think of it as a "friendship through writing."

"Matthew now has a group of kids who will be his support system," she said.

Ellie