Soldier's visit to son's school turns into hero's welcome

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Army Spc. Jarone Shaw got a special surprise Wednesday morning when he walked into Croninger Elementary School to thank his son Braylen's second-grade class for all their kind letters.

What he got was a hero's welcome, flags waving up and down the main hallway while Croninger's nearly 600 students, their teachers and the staff clapped and smiled. Shaw, wearing his fatigues and normally soft spoken with others, according to his wife, Alysia, smiled as he greeted everyone with handshakes, hugs and many a high-five.

"It meant a lot," Shaw told The Journal Gazette (http://bit.ly/1MUFaum ) after the rousing welcome and just before he went into his son's class to talk to his young correspondents. "It's nice being back in the land of the free."

He even got to see his former teachers - Connie Newman and Mark Hewett - since he went to Croninger, too.

While students sat on the carpet in Angie Fraser's second-grade class, Shaw answered the usual questions about weapons - he had an M16 and an M249 - and bad guys, and he explained the reason behind several medals he received. He also had some questions of his own.

"What have you been doing this year?" he asked them. He already knew about the caterpillar and the chrysalis, but there were other high points on learning about spheres, drawing portraits and a party that included dancing.

Fraser said that letters were written to Shaw incorporating lessons on how to format a letter and reading and writing skills.

"They gained an understanding, especially having Braylen in the class, they know what a sacrifice it is for the whole family," Fraser said.

Shaw, 34, joined the Army Reserves three years ago and was assigned to the 304th Engineer Company, out of Lima, Ohio, he said. He was trained to work on communications equipment.

Last April, he was deployed to Kuwait and Afghanistan, spending the bulk of his time - July to December - in Wagram, Afghanistan.

Although he spared Fraser's students the harsh reality of daily life there, his wife explained in private that his base was bombed at least once a week and that at one point he told her he wouldn't tell her anymore.

"It was very frustrating, sad and hard," she said. He was back only 11 months from training when he got deployed, she said, and even though they were able to keep in contact every day, the boys missed him, too. Besides Braylen, they have an 11-year-old son, Brian, who attends Blackhawk Middle School.

"They looked at him like a true superhero," she said while Braylen told the class that he played football with his father. Shaw was a receiver when he played football as a freshman at Snider High School and North Side, where he attended his last three years, graduating in 1998.

Shaw has three more years in the Reserves and could be deployed again, but not for a while, he said. Meanwhile, he is passing on what letters and good wishes mean to people serving around the world.

"Soldiers like to get things like this when we're away," he told the class. "Don't think that while they're away they're not thinking about you guys."

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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net