Erin.Pustay@IndeOnline.com

One hundred tiny voices echoed through the gymnasium of Massillon Christian School as the entire school sang together.

One small boy, John Kirchenbauer, held his hand tightly over his heart as he sang the national anthem. About half way through, he held his a pint-sized American Flag high in the air and waved it fervently as he belted out the verse.

Standing just a little way down from Kirchenbauer, Cpl. Sean Kasler stood quietly, reverently, as the song continued.

Kasler, a 2003 graduate of Massillon Christian School, was a guest of honor at an assembly Tuesday afternoon. He returned home last month from Iraq and will be in town until Saturday, at which point he will return to Okinawa, Japan. From there, he will head Australia and expects to be back in Iraq by October.

The students were proud of him. They cheered and rose to their feet when he was introduced as a guest speaker.

“We are so proud of you,” principal Carol Crowley told Kasler before giving him a hug. “We are proud that you protect us and we are so proud that you are a graduate of Massillon Christian School.”

Going from Massillon to the Marine Corps was a logical move for Kasler, who admits that he never really thought about it until he saw a commericial for the Marines. Something told him that was where he needed to be. That day, he told his best friend he was going to be Marine.

“He told me, ‘you’re not strong enough, you’re not tough enough,’” Kasler recounted. “I made it my personal goal to prove him wrong.”

Proving to himself, his friends and his family that the Marine Corps was where he truly needed to be was not easy. Not long into the boot camp, Kasler tore tendons in his ankle. His drill instructor suggested that he call it quits and head home.

“I wanted to quit so bad, but something in my gut told me to stay,” Kasler said. “I refused to sign the papers to leave. They had to let me sit there and heal.”

Besides, Kasler told the students, he made a promise to someone very special before he left to go into the service. He told his grandmother, shortly before she became very ill, that he was going to be a Marine.

“The drill instructor let me call her a couple of days before she passed away,” Kasler remembered. “I told her again that I was going to (be a Marine).”

In October 2005, Kasler was officially a Marine. He left shortly after for Okinawa, Japan, where he lived until being deployed to Iraq for a seven-month tour of duty. Truthfully, he told the students, he can’t wait to get back. In fact, he and those in his unit were not easily swayed to leave this time.

“We tried to fight it,” Kasler said. “We wanted to extend our mission over there.”

Intrigued by his experiences, students waved their hands in the air hoping he would call on them and answer questions about the work Kasler did dismantling road side bombs and delivering food and water to the Iraqi people.

“Do you speak the Iraqi language?”

“Have you ever been shot with a bullet?”

“How do you hold a gun?”

Patiently, quietly, Kasler answered every one. He is proud, he told them, of the work he did and the things he accomplished. None of that would have been possible, though, without his family and faith.

“We all carry pictures with us,” Kasler told the students. “We carry little Bibles in our trucks, it’s there on the dash and you see it every day. You think to pray when you get off the truck on a mission. As a Christian, you know there is someone bigger watching your back.”

For More Information Contact:

Massillon Christian School Alumni Fellowship
965 Overlook Avenue SW, Massillon, OH 44647
Tel: 330-833-1039

Internet: admin@mcsaf.org