Letters from Home — Jordon Edwards (left) and Chris Jewell write letters to Edwards’ cousin, James Edwards, who is stationed in Iraq as a soldier in the 436th Battallion of A Company in the U.S. Army.

Local elementary school students write letters to soldiers in Iraq

As fighting continues in the Middle East and American soldiers daily risk their lives in support of their mission, the importance of what is going on in Iraq hits home to many.

Through the request of parents and children, teachers at at least two local schools are getting involved by having students write to soldiers. Glade Creek

At Glade Creek, Mrs. Rebecca Neff’s third grade class is writing to James Edwards, who is serving with the 436th Batallion, A Company. Edwards is also the cousin of 9-year-old Jordon Edwards.

“I came in one morning and my mom had it written down on a sheet of paper (that her cousin was in Iraq),” Edwards explained. “Mrs. Neff told everybody about my family and such. Then, we started writing on a Valentine’s sheet.”

She went on to say that her cousin had shipped out shortly after his wife Naomi gave birth to their daughter, Chloe Anne.

“She’s now getting to be four months,” 9-year-old Edwards said. Edwards then spoke of what it was like to have a family member in the military.

“It feels pretty good,” she said. “Sometimes, you’re a little scared that he might get hurt. Sometimes, you’re afraid he’s going to die. Sometimes, you hope he’s going to come back real soon.

“The reason I like writing to James is I send him all different kinds of letters and I want to make sure he gets them because sometimes, they send them back,” Edwards continued. “We send him food and all kinds of things and I want to make sure he’s taken care of and not having the same old meal every day. I want to make sure he’s not sick or hurt.”

While Edwards’ classmates say they enjoy writing Edwards because it’s “cool” to write to an Iraqi-based soldier, the class also noted that they haven’t gotten a response from him as of presstime. Neff notes the learning experience.

“I think it’s a good experience for the children to give them more of a personalized contact to what is actually going on in Iraq,” she said. Beverly Edwards’ third grade class is also writing to James Edwards and is addressing a second letter to ‘Dear Soldier.’ The second letters are given to Deana DeBord, a permanent substitute with Glade Creek. DeBord gives them to Shannon Roark, an instructor at the Alleghany campus of Wilkes Community College. The letters are then distributed to different soldiers by the professor’s brother (Shawn) who is currently overseas.

“We know there are a lot of different soldiers over there that don’t have anybody writing to them,” B. Edwards said. “We wanted them to know that we care and that we were thinking about them and that we appreciate them and we want them to be safe and get home safe.” Edwards’ 9-year-old student Ethan Carico stated the importance of writing to the soldiers.

In reply: Soldier writes to express appreciation

Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent to Piney Creek Elementary School by Staff Sgt. Shawn Roark of the Tennessee Army National Guard. It is being reprinted here after being furnished to the newspaper by the school.

Dear Piney Creek Elementary,

Thank you very much for the Christmas cards you sent us here in Iraq. It brightened everyone’s day to get the cards. It was very nice of you all to take the time and effort to send cards to people you don’t even know.

I’ll tell you a little about us. We are all soldiers from the Tennessee Army National Guard. We are stationed at Camp Bernstein, here in Iraq. The camp is located near a small town called Tuz. The Arabic name for the town is Tozhurmator, which for us is pretty much unpronounceable. The area is mostly agricultural with sheepherders riding really small donkeys and corn and wheat fields.

Most of the people that live here are Kurdish. There are a few Turkomen and Arabs as well. The land is really flat with some treeless hills setting the backdrop to the south and east. It doesn’t look like the mountains I am used to.

Most of the soldiers here are from northeast Tennessee, just across the mountains from you. It’s a big difference in landscape here, that’s for certain. I can e-mail you some pictures sometime, or have my sister bring them to you.

Again, thank you for your cards and thoughts. You can write me if you have questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Your friend,
SSG Shawn Roark

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