By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
10-16-2004

"Second-graders, Charlie Company salutes you," 1st. Sgt. Gary Beason called out in a booming voice about noon Friday as he and more than 100 soldiers of Company C of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 844th Engineer Battalion stood at attention and saluted.

The scene was the parking lot of the Greeneville Army Reserve Center on Barton Ridge Road.

On the receiving end of the mass salute were 43 EastView Elementary School second-graders who had just treated the soldiers to a pizza and ice cream lunch.

Some of the students returned the salute on the chilly afternoon as the soldiers and students faced each other beneath a gray sky.

A few moments earlier, Company C soldiers had placed U.S. Army lapel pins on the shirts and jackets of the children as they stood in a hastily arranged formation that loosely mirrored that of the Company C soldiers.

Company C is preparing to leave Greeneville for an active-duty assignment that likely will involve service in Iraq by late this year or early next year.

Father And Son

One father-son duo was present among the soldiers and students at the Army Reserve Center on Friday afternoon.

Participating were Spc. Seth White, a Company C member who only returned to Greeneville in May after suffering serious injuries last January in a truck wreck in Kuwait, and his son, Christian, 7, an EastView student.

White said he had volunteered in 2003 to transfer from Company C to an Army Reserve unit in Alabama that was being sent to Iraq. Following service in both Iraq and Kuwait in 2003, he was injured in January when a truck in which he was a passenger overturned in Kuwait.

White then spent time in military hospitals in Kuwait and Germany as well as in the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before returning to Greeneville in May.

Having since been reassigned to Company C, White said, he now expects to be deployed to Iraq for a second time.

"It’s kind of hard on him seeing me leave again," White said as he hugged his son Friday afternoon outside the Army Reserve Center.

EastView Elementary is located adjacent to the Army Reserve Center on Barton Ridge Road where Company C is based.

After the formation in which the EastView students and teachers were honored for their support of Company C, 1st Sgt. Beason said the soldiers had wanted to do something to thank the school children for everything they had done for the unit since school resumed in August.

'They’ve Adopted Us'

"They’ve adopted us," he said. "Every day, they’ve been bringing food to us: hot dogs, pizza, sandwiches, snacks. They’ve just taken over."

Beason said that until the EastView students and their teachers began bringing food to the Company C soldiers, the soldiers had been eating what the Army calls packaged MREs (meals ready to eat) for lunch while preparing to depart for active duty.

Beason said that having the opportunity to interact with the students also had been good for many of the soldiers who have been transferred to Company C from other parts of the country in preparation for the unit’s deployment to active duty.

"A lot of these soldiers are away from home," he said. "Seeing these little fellows has meant a lot to them."

1st Sgt. Beason said reservists from New York, Colorado, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin and other states had been transferred to Company C since the unit was alerted that it would be called to active duty.

"They have fallen in and are just one big family," he said. "I had been worried about it, but we’ve got some really good soldiers."

The 43 second-graders were accompanied to the Army Reserve Center on Friday by teachers Rita Wells, Joette Cooper, Brenda Kincaid and Marsha Hybarger.

The teachers said the students had been soliciting donations from local businesses to help pay for food and snacks for the Company C soldiers.

"This is just a tribute to them," teacher Rita Wells said of the soldiers. 1st Sgt. Beason credited Wells with coordinating the school children’s efforts.

Hybarger said the teachers wanted to help the children become involved with Company C as part of an effort to "help them appreciate what the Army does for our country."

Wells said donations from local businesses and individuals had made it possible for the students to provide 72 pizzas, a host of soft drinks and boxes of ice-cream treats to the soldiers on Friday.

She also said other donations had enabled the students to deliver sandwiches on Thursday and to provide breakfast biscuits and other foods to the soldiers earlier.

Wells also said the first- and fifth-grade classes at EastView Elementary also had helped with efforts in support of Company C.

Story Copyright to Greene County Online