Published weekly

March 17, 2005

Soldier visits classroom of student 'pen pals'
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
     ALPINE — A group of fifth graders from Alpine Elementary had a special class speaker last Wednesday afternoon; a U.S. soldier who recently returned from Iraq. During his deployment, Specialist Shawn Le Valley received letters and care packages from the students.
     Le Valley spent an hour with the students who sent the packages, talking about his time in Iraq and answering questions from the kids. Despite their youth, the students had many interesting

Shawn Le Valley shares his experiences as a soldier in Iraq with students who corresponded with him during his tour.

questions for Le Valley.
     "What was the hardest part when you were there?" asked one student. 
     "The hardest thing is always being away from home," answered Le Valley.
     While in Iraq as part of the Charlie Battery ‘Cobras’ in the Red Dragon battalion, Le Valley undertook many different jobs. He was deployed for 14 months, returning home at the end of last month.
     "What kind of missions did you do while you were there?"
"We supervised a lot of road building and school construction," said Le Valley. "And we did a lot of peace keeping missions."
     "Were you there for the Iraq elections?" one of the students asked.
"I was there for the elections," answered Le Valley, "In fact, I was there for two things that are going to go down in history: the transfer of power to the Iraqis and, three days before I left, were the Iraqi elections."
     "What were the elections like? Did you expect that turn out?" followed up one of the teachers
"I was in Babylon at the time, a really modern place. Turnout there was a lot."
     "We tried to just stand back and let the Iraqis handle their own business," Le Valley said. "They did a really good job."
     Many students were interested in the environment and wildlife in Iraq. Le Valley gave everyone the willies when he talked about camel spiders, a native spider that can measure the size of a dinner plate and can run nearly 20 miles per hour.
     "What was your favorite part of being there?" asked one of the students.
     "Getting to hear from family is always the best part," said Le Valley, "getting phone calls and letters. That’s the best thing you can get when you’re deployed."
     This comment brought a smile to the faces of many of the children who sent care packages to Le Valley.
     "It was great getting the letters. I didn’t have time to write back but I read them all — they really made my day," said Le Valley. "I shared all the letters with my unit and we hung the decorated cups all around our tent."
     The grade five students from Mrs. McGillicuddy and Mrs. Fordem’s class sent care packages to Le Valley a few months ago. The packages included a letter from every child and various arts and crafts projects.
     "Do you have to go back?" asked another student. "My unit is not scheduled to go back until January 2007," Le Valley responded.
     Afterward, Le Valley said that he enjoyed being in the army and the training that he received. However he does not plan to re-enlist:
     "I’m done with it," he said. "It’s time to move on to bigger and better things."

                                                E-mail Christy Scott