Two Afghanistan veterans took their stories of the battlefield to an elementary school classroom during a holiday visit.
Cpl. Mat Humaniski and Lt. Col. Geoff Abthorpe, commanding officer of the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, visited the Grade6 and 7 class at Agnew H. Johnston Public School on Tuesday. Humaniski and Abthorpe, both veterans of Afghanistan, answered a number of questions from the class that included what weapons they preferred to life in the military.
Humaniski, who returned from his six-month tour in Afghanistan in November, said being in the military is one of the best experiences in his life.
Humaniski joined the reserves when he was 16-years-old and then the regular forces two years later.
When he went over for his tour, he said he was OK with it, but after coming home for a visit he admitted that it became harder to go.
But his sense of duty continued driving him to go back.
“I’m a proud Canadian,” he said. “I believe in the uniform, the flag and I thought it was my duty to go over. It was long, hot and busy. I didn’t know too much about Afghanistan. It’s not necessarily all desert or mountainous. There’s some vegetation and lots of spiders and salamanders.”
While he didn’t interact with many Afghan locals, he said he did often talk to an eight-year-old-boy who would always ask him to buy a scarf.
The boy drew Humaniski a picture, which now rests safely at his home.
Humaniski said he wanted to tell the students what it was like overseas and how the Canadian Forces were doing.
While he encouraged everyone to join, Humaniski said people have make certain that being a soldier is really what they want to do.
“It depends on how you feel about your country, depends on your lifestyle, depends on if you’re the right type of person to go overseas and do that kind of thing for your country,” he said.
The students showed their appreciation for Humaniski’s visit by giving him an early Christmas gift that included a box of Persians. Humaniski and Abthorpe joked that they always knew which soldier was from Thunder Bay whenever they talked about Persians or Bismarcks.
During the past 10 years, Abthorpe said Canadians have showed more support for soldiers.
Abthorpe, who also served in Pakistan, said it’s always hard on the family when a soldier goes on another tour.
“We always know there could be one more mission,” Abthorpe said.
“Going on multiple tours, you become jaded. We can talk about multiple tours and how we donate our time and our nation’s resources and you can become quite embittered and it’s almost frustrating. But as I told the kids there’s a sense of renewal when you come back that you are making a difference. If you can make one difference to one person you have definitely invested well.”
Megan Harri, an English teacher at the school, said the class was working on a project involving civilians in war and how it impacted the world so she thought it was a good idea to wrap up the lesson with a visit from actual soldiers.
“The students have read a lot of books about different aspects of the world and I think this just allowed them that people from Thunder Bay are actually involved and it brings the Thunder Bay connection to the world,” Harri said.
