Army sergeant visits Antioch schoolkids

Like a front-running politician on the campaign trail, U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Perminas shook hands, signed autographs and posed for pictures with his adoring fans.

He must have high-fived more than a hundred students.

Home on leave from duty in Iraq, the 30-year-old Antioch native came to Antioch Upper Grade School Friday to visit with the sixth- and seventh-graders he's been corresponding with over many months and thousands of miles.

"It's definitely cool that he's here," said sixth-grader Ryan Mullen. "He came back to see us. Very cool."

Back in 2004, AUGS teachers Beth Hook and Barb Regan had the idea to for their students to become e-mail pen-pals with Perminas. He was a student there in the early '90s. Though the exchange of letters was slow, Perminas said getting notes from his hometown kids took the edge off life on the battlefield.

"The letters were great," Perminas said. "They also sent care packages for our whole platoon. Food, toiletries and even AUGS T-shirts. It was great."

Perminas gave the nearly 200 students a slide show depicting life in Iraq. He made a point of showing them how Iraqi kids live. He showed pictures of small, stone school buildings with crude wooden desks. A collective groan went up from the students when Perminas mentioned the lack of air-conditioning and that temperatures in the Middle Eastern country get as high as 120 degrees.

The presentation ended with Q and A session, and the kids had some tough questions. "Have you ever been shot at?" asked a seventh-grader. Perminas said yes, but thankfully his unit hasn't sustained serious casualties.

Perminas will head back to Iraq at the end of the month for another 15-month tour. When that's complete, he'll join up with the 101st Airborne Division and head to Afghanistan.

The visit ended with one last question from a sixth-grader: "What's the hardest thing about being a soldier?"

Perminas didn't give the expected answers about the danger of life on the front lines. "Leaving my wife and daughter behind," he said. "That's definitely the hardest part."