A visitor from the battlefield

Marine meets Carroll students who wrote letters to him in Iraq

During a separate session with first-graders, Lakota Gladwin threw out a more challenging question.

"Why do you have to fight?" she asked.

"Because there's very bad people out there that are trying to do bad things to good people," Peake replied.

While accustomed to receiving e-mail and regular mail from family, friends and even strangers, Peake said he hadn't expected the letters, drawings and class photos that arrived from the Manchester students a few months into his time at Al Asad.

"I was really surprised," Peake, a graduate of North Carroll High, said in an interview. "It was really fun to go through and read the letters." He shared the notes with fellow Marines, he said.

They were "such a good reminder of home and what we were serving for," he added. "Mail always means a lot when you're in the military, but when you're over there, you just can't describe the feeling of getting letters from home ... . They lift you up."

Clinedinst, who supplied Peake with boxes of Pop-Tarts and Maryland staples such as Old Bay seasoning in addition to the letters, said Manchester Elementary's community-oriented spirit prompted her to ask teachers to participate.

"I knew he missed being home," Clinedinst said. "It gets kind of lonely and boring over there [in Iraq] when you're not doing something."

She and the teachers involved saw a potential learning experience for the kids, too.

"They have such a curiosity about other parts of the world," second-grade teacher Shelley Ruhlman said, adding that the students were "very excited" about Peake's unexpected visit.

As the second- and third-grade visit drew to a close, Madison Collins ventured into a more serious vein with her second question for the Marine.

"Do you like fighting for our country?"

"I love fighting for our country," said Peake, who returns tomorrow to his unit in Oklahoma. "There's no better feeling in the world for me."

Minutes later, he left the room, which quickly filled with excited buzzing as the students chattered among themselves.

"I guarantee that when they go home tonight, they're going to be talking about their visit from Sgt. Peake," Ruhlman said. "This will stay with them."

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