Courtesy of Bill Pearl
L.B. Report.com
“Dear Solider,” Katy Feller wrote from Los Altos Brethren’s Elementary School’s third grade class. Her carefully printed lettering on lined paper said:
“Is the military hard? I am praying for you very much. If you have any friends that are hurt, make sure you pray for them. Thank you for fighting in the war for us. I appreciate all you have done for us…We appreciate all you have done for our country… P.S. I live down in Long Beach, California.”
The letter traveled half a world away to Iraq, where it reached Major Rick Skeen who was on his third six-month deployment and has been away from home a year and half during the last five years. At the time, Skeen was in a military hospital bed and the letter touched him very much. He noticed that it came from Long Beach, not far from his South Bay area home.
Mike Asfall, a graduate of Leadership Long Beach’s 2005 class, was a catalyst for what happened next.
On Skeen’s stateside return, Asfall, an Industrial Specialist at DCMA, Redondo Beach/ Northrop Grumman (formerly active duty military), arranged to have the major participate in Leadership Long Beach’s “Principal for a Day” program.
“!One of my supervisors brought me to his office and showed me the letter from Katy and that’s how we put this in motion,” Asfall said.
On Oct. 29, Skeen, in uniform, entered the East Long Beach classroom. With Feller seated in the front of the room, Skeen produced her letter. Feller was stunned and speechless.
To prevent himself from getting too emotional, the major brought along his own written remarks [portions of which can be viewed at LBReport.com].
Applause filled the classroom. Skeen shook Katy’s hand, telling her, “Thank you so much for your letter. It really made a difference for me, really special.”
At the teacher’s request, Skeen spoke about his family. He has two children, a daughter in first grade and an older daughter in college… studying engineering on an academic scholarship. “You can all do it too. All you have to do is keep studying,” The major advised, adding “you really need to know a lot of math.”
After speaking to that class, Skeen went on to address a full school assembly. When asked what he thought of his daughter’s role in triggering all that took place, Katy’s father Bob replied, “We’re really proud of her, obviously. But you know, she represents a lot of the kids that have written letters to our soldiers…She just represents all of them that are out there and doing that and we’re really proud of these guys and what they’re doing.”
