By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - When teaching students the subject of history, you want it to be fun and exciting and for them to be able to connect with it in some way. Brandywine teacher Douglas Mappin will be able to do just that as he leaves his history classes to become part of history itself.
Just two weeks ago, the 47-year-old South Bend native, who is a naval reservist, received his deployment notification.
Hearing this news might be troubling for some people, but Mappin was positive.
While stationed in Kawait, Mappin will be part of a customs inspection team from the Naval Expeditionary Logistics Support Force Forward. He will be there for one year, with the possibility of being extended.
Mappin joined the Navy reserves at the age of 36, just two weeks shy of his 37th birthday, which would make him too old to join. Since joining, Mappin has been a naval journalist working in the public information office.
While in the Navy Mappin has been able to travel all over the world and has gotten to meet many interesting people. "Being in the Navy has been the best ride of my life," said Mappin.
On July 11 he will travel to Chicago to begin a five-week training odyssey in Norfolk, Va., and Williamsburg, Va. and then on to Kuwait on Aug. 18.
Mappin has been a teacher in the Brandywine Public Schools for the past four years.
Mappin added that he is really going to miss all of the friends he has made at both Brandywine High School and Bell Education Center.
Upon his return from Kawait, Mappin plans to return to teaching, and hopefully it will be at Brandywine.