Reporting the Past
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Fourth-graders at Connoquenessing Elementary School recently grabbed their notepads, picked up their pens and took on new roles as “war correspondents” reporting from their school's gym.
In preparation for Veterans Day, Nancy Jo Braun, a teacher at the school, led the students through a series of journalistic interviews with veterans. First, the children called and emailed relatives and friends who are veterans. To cap it off, students brought in 10 of their subjects for in-person interviews on Oct. 24.
The students met Vietnam veteran Robert Ordy, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient.
They heard from Patrick McCurdy, an Air Force master sergeant who just returned from a six-month deployment at an undisclosed air base in southwest Asia.
“The questions were good,” McCurdy said. “They were very interested, which kind of surprised me.”
Connor St. Clair said he learned about an act of heroism from his father, Randy St. Clair.
“He helped people from a tank crash that fell from 50 feet high,” Connor said.
What follows are excerpts from the news stories the students wrote. This assignment was a first for the school and an experiment, Braun said, but she believes the results warrant publication. Here's what the students learned.
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Soldiers get to eat takeout, St. Clair informed his son Connor, Zachary Hofmann and Cade Karns.“What's for lunch?” the students wrote. “Connor's dad knew what he was getting almost every day. He ate something called MREs. It was some kind of lunch in a bag. They must do this so they can get takeout to go.”———With interviewing help from fellow students Ecklund Rummel and Miles Spangler, Matthew Black learned all about what his mother, Erinn Black, does in the Air Force.“When I see my mom at home, I can't imagine her flying in a jet in the Air Force, but that's what she does,” Matthew wrote.His mom apparently dresses differently on the job.“She used to wear a camo military uniform but now she wears an Airman battle uniform that has a lighter camo pattern and a flak vest that weighs 20 pounds,” Matthew wrote. “Around the house she usually wears comfy clothes, not a flak vest.”———Kendall Strawbridge reported her own surprise from learning that her grandfather, Ordy, was a “war hero.” She enlisted help from Samantha Capriotti and Stratton Musko for her interview and article.“He said that he was in Vietnam when he got shot in the chest,” Strawbridge wrote. “He was 40 feet away from the other man that was shooting. He kept going and because of that he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. It is actually very overwhelming for me to hear about it.”Ordy explained his battlefield hygiene to the students.“When he got to take a shower it was actually scooping water out of a hole with his helmet and dumping it on his head,” the students wrote.———Marin McCurdy, Kendall O'Brien, Eva Stutz and Riley Reay reported that Marin's father, Patrick, met President Donald Trump while on the job. He isn't the only veteran in the family, Marin wrote.“My family is special because we have other people in the military too like my great-uncle, my great-grandfather, and Papa Ken,” Marin wrote.———
Julia Rush wrote that she learned while interviewing her uncle, Larry Kretzler, that he intercepted a Russian submarine. Julia also interviewed her grandfather, Gary Rush, but found him hard to believe.“He always twists around the things we say to make them funny,” Julia wrote. “That doesn't sound like a serious soldier to me.”———Chloe Feil shared her own personal connection with her aunt, Chelsea Miller.“The day before my aunt left for the military she gave me a teddy bear that had the Marine symbol on it,” Feil wrote. “I still keep it on my bed all the time.”———Nora Trepanier interviewed her aunt and uncle, Evan and Erin Switzer. They had different answers for her when she asked why they enlisted in the Navy.“Erin said that she joined because she had a desire to serve her country,” Trepanier wrote. “Evan said that he joined because someone told him that he couldn't make it in the military.”
