Since that time, we have received responses from two of our soldiers.
One is Jelena's uncle, Michael Smith. He is a Sergeant First Class in the US Army. Currently he is stationed in Tuscon, Arizona. Below you will find his letter to our class. He included a description of his daily activities and explained his job in more detail. Also he took time to answer the students' questions.
Dear Mrs. Tremonti & 5th
Grade Class,
I
want to say thank you all for the letters that were given to me. I truly appreciate the time that you put into
your letters. They are extremely appreciated.
I wanted to take this time to share information about myself and answer
the questions you have asked of me.
To tell you all
a little bit about myself, I grew up in Winslow, AZ. I was born in Tucson, AZ. My mother has worked in Holbrook for nearly 30
years. I am quite fond of Northern AZ
but I am not a fan of the cold weather that you all experience in that
environment. After graduating from high
school, I left for the Army and I have remained in the military for the past
16years. I am a “lifer “as they say and I
plan on staying in the military until I am able retire.
In
my time in the military, I have traveled all over the world. I have lived in Europe and have been as far as
Indonesia. I have been to the Middle
East, having visited Kuwait and Iraq.
Currently I am assigned to a military aviation flight training school,
where they teach pilots to fly the Apache Helicopter, Blackhawk helicopter, and
the Light Utility Helicopter.
Unfortunately, I do not fly helicopters but I have flown in all of the
aircrafts. I am not personally a fan of
flying. I am actually scared of flying and prefer to be on the ground.
Working
in the military is nothing like what many of your parents do in their day to
day jobs. We are assigned many jobs that
we may have to perform. Some of the jobs
are what we do every day and others are what we are assigned to do from time to
time. My actual job that I perform is
like being an accountant for my organization.
I spend money for the items that are needed for my organization. I also ensure that my Soldiers that work for
me are properly trained in their duties and are physically fit. The one job that I enjoy the most is solving
problems. I am a great problem solver and I believe that there are only solutions to
obstacles we all face.
As an assigned
duty of mine, I am a casualty notification officer. In this duty, I have to inform a Soldier’s
loved one(s) that their Service Member has passed away. This job is extremely difficult but as a
Soldier you honor their sacrifice that they made as respectfully as
possible. I am also assigned numerous
other jobs that are required of me within my day to day operating
functions. I have a fleet of vehicles
that I manage; I am responsible for shipping and receiving of materials,
similar to a warehouse manager. I am
basically the guy that you would go to in order to buy whatever you need so you
didn’t have to spend your own money for your supplies.
In my spare time
I am a student, similar to all of you. I
am going to school to obtain my degree in business management. I am almost complete with all of my studies
but it has taken me a long time, being as I am a part time student and take a
class every chance that I am able. I
will achieve this one goal that I have set for myself and that is to get my
degree. All my time put into it will be worth it all.
As for what I
truly enjoy doing when I am able to is spending time with my family. I appreciate every moment I get to spend with
my family who are near and far. I enjoy
working out with my Soldiers and participating in Crossfit, a gym I go to. My son and I do a lot of running together and
participate in 5k races every chance we get.
I play X-Box 360 with my son and yes we play games that are rated
M. I enjoy living in Tucson, but I must
say I miss the small town atmosphere. I
enjoy watching movies and lounging around when I am not busy. When it comes to candy I am a fan of red
vines and a healthy trail mix.
The one piece of
advice that I can offer to all of you is to take your studies seriously. Without an education you will have a
difficult time obtaining a job and getting the things that you may want when
you get older. If I had a choice to do
things differently in my life I would have gone straight to college after I
graduated. Take your education seriously
and learn all that you can because you will take what you learn now and put it
to use when you start your career.
I hope that I
have answered everyone’s questions and if I have not, please let your teacher
know and she can email me and I will respond back to you. Thank you all again for the letters that were
provided to me. They
were all a pleasure to read and thank you all for your kind words.
Very
Respectfully,
Michael
A Smith
Sergeant
First Class
United
States Army
We also received a response from Sgt Ashley Barber. Ashley is a friend of mine from Alabama. She is currently in the US Army and is training to work in EOD (Explosive Ordinance Division). Her job training will be similar to a movie the parents might have seen, The Hurt Locker. To quote www.goarmy.com, "Explosive ordnance disposal specialist Soldiers are the Army’s preeminent tactical and technical explosives experts. They are warriors who are properly trained, equipped and integrated to attack, defeat and exploit unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices and weapons of mass destruction." In civilian speak, they keep bombs from blowing up by disarming them or by studying how to dispose of them properly. She is currently home on leave to see her children before leaving for a year to other trainings in Virginia and Florida. She also sent a response via facebook just thanking the students for their letters. In particular she loved Jadin's letter because he asked her whether she likes Halo or Juggernauts more. Ashley responded by saying, "Halo, every time." We will track Ashley's training and write to her again in the future.
If you know of any other active military that might enjoy receiving letters from our class, please email me (or leave a comment below) with their address and some general information about their career. The kids have really enjoyed following through with these letters. Some have even considered a career in the military. I think it's great to continue this communication and get to know other people in different careers!
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