Questions for a Soldier

My niece, Kelsea, is an Army Lieutenant serving our country in Afghanistan.

She asked all of her family members to write letters to her. Of course, I couldn't stop at that! I invited all the teachers in my school district to have students write letters to her and make cards for the soldiers who go through her medic station there in Afghanistan.

Two fifth grade classes, led by Ms. Bordine and Mrs. Wells, wrote well-thought-out letters with probing questions. Kelsea wouldn't have time to respond to the letters by the time school is out, so I asked her if she would be willing to Skype with the classes and answer some of their questions. She agreed and we set up a time. I read through each of the letters the students wrote and chose about 20 questions for Kelsea to answer, including the students' names with the questions. I sent the questions to her ahead of time so she would be prepared with answers.   Boy, were those kids excited to hear their names from far across the world! It was very late for her - nearly 11:00 PM for her, and just after lunch for the fifth graders. The teachers even gave up part of their lunch time to escort their classes to the library for the big event!

We had a few technical difficulties at first, but soon we were talking face to face with my fabulous niece! She answered questions, showed us her quarters, her snack drawer (completely full of goodies sent from home), the outside of the buildings where she works, and most importantly, her gun! It was exciting for us to see her and realize that she was waaaaay across the ocean in a war zone! We found out that her favorite subject in school was most likely science and that she didn't like math. She has to carry her gun with her all the time. She works in the same room in which she sleeps. The soldiers who are injured in the field are only at her workplace for around 2 hours where they are stabilized so that they can be moved to a hospital. She will return to the USA sometime next fall and then be trained to be a MEDEVAC helicopter pilot! I got a little teary-eyed when she said that she missed her family very much - WE MISS YOU TOO, KELSEA!

Here are a couple of pictures from the Skype visit. I loved using Skype and hope to use it again in the future. After all, a bunch of second graders made cards for some of the soldiers Kelsea and her troops treat! ;)