Students in a Chico State class have “adopted” U.S. soldiers deployed overseas.
An English 462 class taught by professor Lynn Houston has utilized the Adopt A U.S. Soldier program as a class project to help students further understand the texts they are reading this semester.
“The English department has allowed me a lot of freedom in setting up courses in my areas of interest,” Houston said. “I’m very interested in what people in English can contribute to the understanding of the global political climate in this time of war.”
This is the first time Houston has incorporated the program into an English class and the response has been extremely positive, she said.
“I enjoy taking English classes, I take them for fun,” said Emily Beraz, a theater arts major, “If I had the opportunity to participate in something like this, I’m sure I would be more involved in the course work.”
The course examines works by authors Norman Mailer, Tim O’Brien, Jason Christopher Hartley and Anthony Swofford.
The class focuses on O’Brien, who is an American novelist who writes mostly about the Vietnam War and its impact on the soldiers who fought there. The class reads three of his novels during the course.
The class’ project with adoptaussoldier.org came about when Houston, who had already participated in the program, spoke with Ann Johnson, the founder of the Web site, and formed a class project using communication with soldiers to give more substance to what they were reading.
“As English majors we read and analyze and communicate,” Houston said. “This was a really great opportunity for some community service based in the things English majors do.”
Each student adopted a soldier through the Web site.
Adopt a US Soldier connects supportive citizens with soldiers who register for the service. The program helps soldiers with low morale connect with people back home, Houston said.
It is good that people take time out of their lives to write and support the troops in this way, said Matthew Patchin, a soldier participating in the program.
Houston’s class writes weekly letters to the soldiers they’ve adopted.
“In some cases it has turned into more frequent e-mails as well and care packages as well,” Houston said.
She put out a campus-wide announcement to get support for her project and wasn’t sure what sort of response she would receive.
The outpouring of support from the community has been surprising, Houston said. One of her adopted soldiers is asking for children’s toys and items to give to the children where they are stationed.
“We have an Adopt A Soldier box in the main English office on the second floor of Taylor Hall,” Houston said. “Within an hour of the setting up the box and putting out the word we already had magazines, toiletries and all the baking supplies we had asked for.”
This project also made students more interested in the course work, Houston said. Having a hands-on approach to learning about such a sensitive subject has been very helpful to the learning process for her class.
“The students themselves are so much more invested in the class,” Houston said. “There’s a real hands-on, active learning application that extends outside the walls of the classroom and into the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Alexander Maier can be reached at
amaier@theorion.com
Our soldiers...most importantly, YOUR soldiers, are doing unbelievably stressful and dangerous work. The average soldier in my Brigade lives and works out of a remote Combat Outpost. This can sometimes mean sleeping in the dirt, sleeping when they can in between incoming rocket and mortar attacks. They normally go weeks without a shower (thank goodness for baby wipes!), eat cold chow, with few phones or Internet being available. We are in the midst of the "summer fighting season" which means that we are engaged in numerous firefights and IED strikes every single day. When you go "outside" the wire you are always tense and high-strung, searching for that command wire of an IED, meeting village elders as you immerse yourself in a totally foreign culture that you neither fully understand or are part of, and are often viewed with deep suspicion and frowns. There are indeed rewarding moments where you smile; children in particular have the unique ability to bring a smile to the face of the gruffest soldier, but you never let down your guard. When your armored security vehicle rolls back through the relative safety of the gate after days on patrol where you perhaps carried a 100 pound pack on a mountain at 10,000 feet it is sometimes all you can do to stumble to your sleeping bag for some much-needed rest.
So where do you come in? You, quite simply, are there to greet us with love and support when we stumble back through the gate.
Mail has always been cherished by soldiers in a war zone for as long as there has been the written word. It's hard to describe what it's like when those magical words of, "hey, the mail is in!" is excitedly passed from soldier to soldier. The atmosphere instantly lightens and smiles appear on the tired faces of soldiers who look 10 years older than their age. The closest I can describe it as is that it's akin to Christmas morning. The toughest soldier takes his box or letter from a loved one or a Soldiers' Angel and does his best not to grin like a 10-year-old getting that new bike from Santa, retreating to someplace quiet to open his mail. That's an unspoken rule for soldiers....unless 10,000 Taliban are about to storm the gates or a nuclear bomb is about to vaporize the entire countryside, you DON'T disturb a soldier when he or she is opening up their mail! It may be behind the guard tower or in their sleeping bag by the light of a red-lens flashlight, but a soldier opening his mail is a very intimate and private moment, one to be cherished.
What do you all bring to us over here? A slice of home. You may think that you don't have much to offer in your letters that often go unanswered. You may feel you are rambling on about the weather or about how you find cemeteries a peaceful place or who just won "American Idol." But to a soldier in a combat zone? That is life. That is normalcy. That is what we have to look forward to when our duty here is done. When you write these letters, even though they may go unanswered, you need to know that every letter that you seal and put into the mailbox will cause a tremendous smile on the other end.
On behalf of all of us soldiers over here I want to thank you for what you do. With the lack of Internet access, limited time, and plain old exhaustion, most of your letters and emails often go unanswered. Please know, however, that they are deeply appreciated. You are doing your own part in all of this...you are showing your support. And that is what a soldier needs...knowing that he is not forgotten, that his efforts are appreciated, and that many, many people back home are thinking about and praying for them.
Thank you so very much for what you do.
Steve