By By DAN SMITH
U.S. Army Specialist Brent Seifferlein paid a visit to Kincheloe Elementary School during his recent leave from the service.
He came to give a firsthand account of the war in Iraq to Dave Vibbert's fourth grade class.
Even though Seifferlein served for 15 months in a war zone, and even though he's a former Kincheloe student whose parents both work for schools, he felt just a little apprehensive about holding the interest of a whole class of children.
Seifferlein first explained that Specialist is his rank. He has advanced from Private, to Private Second Class, Private First Class, and now, Specialist.
He hopes for another promotion soon which would make him a Sergeant.
American soldiers stationed all around the world are rotated to Iraq, and he went to Iraq and then back to Germany.
His job in Iraq was to man an M 249 machine gun, a 14-pound weapon with a drum of 200 rounds.
He kept it by his side at all times, even in bed.
Although he stayed in the Baghdad area more than a year, he gratefully never had to fire it at the enemy.
Living conditions were tough. Seifferlein stayed at first in a warehouse-sized tent everyone called "Dogwood" and ate MREs - ready-to-eat meals.
Later they moved into a real building and had better meals, but some things didn't improve.
The heat, for instance, was incredible. Seifferlein said the hottest day went up to 140 degrees.
At night the temperature dropped and it felt cool at "only" 100 degrees.
In the winter they had to wear gloves a few times.
Vermin were another problem. Seifferlein said, "There were wild dogs and wild cats in Iraq, but they weren't as bad as the rats that got into our food."
Worse yet were the scorpions and spiders.
He described one type, camel spiders, as being fearless. They go inside the soldiers' tents for the comfort of the shade.
They have two feelers that look like fingers right near their mouth.
At three to 10 inches across, with pinkish bodies and tan hair, Seifferlein called the spiders "actually pretty disgusting - one of the nastiest things I've ever seen."
Unless you count mortars. Seifferlein's unit often came under fire. Sometimes every other night he had to take cover.
Seifferlein matter-of-factly downplayed the danger.
In vehicles he was fired upon at times, "but we never had to stop for a big fight or anything like that."
The children were convinced he was in more danger from the rats and spiders, and they told him so.
Seifferlein said he was not sorry he went to Iraq, but he wouldn't want to go back.
He noted some good things happening in Iraq haven't received the attention they deserve, like Americans building schools for the Iraqi children.
Before leaving, he answered every question students had for him.
As Vibbert thanked Seifferlein for visiting, he pointed out that Seifferlein sure looks a lot like Capt. Iven Kincheloe, the school's namesake.
He chuckled on the way out, thinking back about his initial nervousness.
In another understatement he said, "I guess they were interested in what I had to say."
Actually, we're all interested in the welfare of a hometown soldier like Brent Seifferlein.