New Haven Independent

Vollero, who returned in September from a year of military service in Iraq as a helicopter pilot and safety officer, was honored Wednesday with a commendation from school officials and a giant bear hug from his students in the Truman School gym.

“In Vietnam, when a soldier came home he was never given what I just received,” said Vollero, who spoke to a class of sixth-graders about his time abroad. A gym teacher in the city’s public schools for over 30 years, Vollero received an official thanks from Superintendent Reggie Mayo. “He went to spread democracy and freedom. That’s a very hard thing to do,” said Mayo. “You bring honor to the school, to the city, [and] to the country.”

Vollero was awarded a Bronze Star, the military’s fourth-highest honor, for his work as safety officer overseeing a major air assault. The mission was executed without any loss of U.S. officers’ lives.

Truman students, several of whom have relatives who’ve fought in Iraq, wrote their gym teacher letters and sent cookies while he was in Iraq. They listened as he described conditions at his camp at the Q-West airfield about 200 miles north of Baghdad.

The 54-year-old told of heat that “makes your eyes burn,” of scorpions and long work days. “If you don’t drink, you die.” His lesson to students was one befitting a man now leading them through the one-mile run: “Persistence and determination.”

His eyes filled with tears when he spoke of the flag-draped coffins being shipped back home from the desert. “I would gladly give all my medals to get one of those guys out” alive, he said.

For some sitting cross-legged on the wooden gym floor, the soldier’s words hit home. Logan Grant (pictured in middle, with Marlon Staten and Micah Hicks) said his 19-year-old cousin just left Rosette Street in the Hill to become a soldier. Logan said the cousin going to deploy to Iraq: “He wanted to help his country from all the badness out there.”

“I wanted to be in the army but my mom doesn’t trust it,” added Logan, who’s 12. “she don’t trust that I might pass away early.”

Hicks (pictured at right) sent Vollero a note of encouragement while abroad, “cause I didn’t know if he would come back.”

Kani Sanders (pictured at left) has an aunt and uncle who, when they were just about to get married, were both deployed to Iraq. From Vollero’s letters, she learned a soldier’s life is “very hard, it’s a risk-taking thing. … If your friends get hurt, you can’t break down. You have to be strong.”

Vollero had taught many of the kids since kindergarten. He took a leave of absence from school to fight for a year, then went back to teaching within a week of his return. He said it was hard to adjust to the pace of work — compared to his job staffing the air base, “teaching is more strenuous, because you gotta make sure that no one gets hurt.”

Despite the pleas of colleagues, Vollero said he’ll go back if he’s called to.

“I’m saddened to hear of all the sudden and increased violence” in Iraq. But he’s optimistic that the U.S.A. can “bring freedom” to its people, who he says only knew fear and torture under Saddam Hussein. “I don’t like for us to have to leave without taking care of them.”

Since the war began in 2003, over 3,000 U.S. troops have died.

“Will they die in vain? I sure hope not. I sure hope they find an equitable way to bring them home.”