By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
PENDLETON — Third-grader Chastin Gardner got called to the principal’s office Friday at East Elementary School. “I think he thought he was in trouble,” said his mother, Ginny Cantrell.
But in a top-secret mission, his uncle, Air Force Master Sgt. David Small, was waiting in the office for him, along with many relatives. Small recently returned from active duty in Iraq.
“I was surprised when I first saw him,” Chastin said. “I was very excited.”
So was Chastin’s class when Small strode in wearing the uniform that was his daily attire in his most recent deployment, safeguarding Balad Air Base north of Baghdad as part of the 532nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron.
Small, who now lives in Dayton, Ohio, attended Anderson High School and graduated from Highland High School before joining the Air Force in 1993. He returned to the area Friday to visit with Chastin’s class, which during his last deployment sent a care package that he said made a difference to troops so far from home.
“What you guys did here was huge,” Small told students huddled around him in Marcia Farr’s classroom. “It shows you guys can have an impact worldwide.”
For his fellow soliders, “To receive a box filled with Pringles and shaving cream and soap — the finer things in life” provided a tremendous morale boost, Small said.
The third-graders came loaded with questions that kept Small moving from raised hand to raised hand.
“We saw people actually try to blow things up,” he said, holding up a small piece of metal. “What I have here is a piece of copper wire. This very one was attached to a bomb.”
Small, a combat instructor in his unit, held the students’ interest with an easy give-and-take while also describing the deadly serious nature of his mission — protecting nearly 25,000 intermational forces at Balad from indirect fire and improvised explosive devices.
When a girl asked how he could tell if something buried posed a threat, Small said, “If you guys see a big, snarly dog in the distance, do you run up to it?”
“Nooooo,” came the chorus.
His forces would treat it like that, he said. They might send in a robot, for instance, to get a closer look.
“If it blows up a robot, you can replace the robot,” he said. “You can’t replace a troop.”
When a boy asked a question that seemed to be rooted in video game play, Small responded, “I really wouldn’t use a rocket launcher to kill a person individually.”
It gave Small an opportunity to explain the meaning of “overkill.” If a bully took your lunch money, he said to the students, you wouldn’t get a tank to go after him.
Small also used his gear for show and tell — the glow sticks that are used to communicate over distance on missions, infrared and night-vision monoculars and body armor were items that elicited responses like “whoa,” and “awesome.”
A number of Small’s family members stood in the back of the classroom and smiled as they listened to the curiosity of the children.
“The kids are just really interested in what’s going on,” said Candy Small, David’s stepmother.
Farr, the third-grade teacher, received a flag from Small that had been flown in eight combat missions in Iraq.
“It’s just been fantastic that he came over,” she said.
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
