Apr 8, 2002 By Kris Schiffbauer 5 min read

Leaning a little forward in a child-sized chair with hands joined in his lap, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Joshua Robbins answered frankly, “Yes, I was. I was scared until the time I landed back in Florida.” The boys and girls of Laurel Highlands School District’s R.W. Clark Elementary School’s sixth-grade classroom with teacher Michelle Gunnoe raised their hands, one after the other, some holding them high and waving, for the chance to ask Robbins what it was like to be involved in Operation Enduring Freedom.

A Keisterville native now living at the Hurlburt Field base in Florida, Robbins stopped by the classroom Thursday near the end of an Easter leave with his family to personally thank the youngsters for a package of valentines they sent him overseas.

He heads back to work this week, although he does not know exactly where he’ll be assigned next.

Another child’s question: “If you were ever hurt doing your job and you recovered, would you still do it?”

“Yes,” Robbins said, with no hesitation.

One child wanted to know what the flag means to Robbins.

“The flag, personally, is the greatest symbol in the world to me. When I see the flag, I get chills. It’s the greatest thing to me,” he said.

The teacher took that moment to give Robbins a gold charm of a flag with the letters USA as something he could wear to let him know he was being thought of all the time.

The youngsters asked the profound questions as well as the trite.

They asked if Robbins saw any Afghans or experienced any bombings. To both, he answered no. They asked about the equipment and weapons, entertainment, friendships, accommodations and weather.

Food was of particular curiosity. The military’s packaged food rations leave much to be desired, but Robbins said he enjoyed a delicacy of sorts by taking peanut butter meant for crackers and spreading it over the brownie dessert.

“They never cease to amaze me,” he said of the children afterward.

Robbins said he could not give particulars on where he was stationed from November through February or what he was doing for Operation Enduring Freedom, but, in general, he was in the Central Command Theater of the Middle East, working on the maintenance and repairs of ground equipment supporting military helicopters.

The son of Dave and Danita Robbins of Keisterville and a 1996 graduate of Uniontown Area High School, Robbins observed his five-year anniversary in the military Sept. 11.

He was in the midst of getting ready for an assignment and was on his way to the base when he got the news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

“I don’t think anyone thought this could happen,” he said.

Robbins’ father was with him at the school Thursday, smiling at times at the questions and answers. He said his 24-year-old son has made him proud.

The elder Robbins and his father – Sheldon Robbins, also of Keisterville – flew to Florida a couple of weeks ago and spent a few days with the younger Robbins before driving him home to Fayette County for a welcome visit.

“We’re anxious, but he’s been in the service six years, so we have come to realize this is his job. We just put him in the Lord’s hands. That’s all we can do,” Dave Robbins said, saying his wife has been the emotional member of the family.

“My dad was in the service (U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II). From the time he (Joshua) was very young, he wanted to be in the service.

He enlisted at 17 and had 17 or 18 months’ delayed enlistment. This is something he’s always wanted to do. He’s one of the few kids I know who’s done what he wanted and he’s done very well with it. We’re very proud.”

“I just always remember wanting to do this,” the younger Robbins said.

He said the military service most likely will remain his career.

He chose the Air Force because he wanted to see the world, and he has done just that.

Among his travels in this country and beyond, Robbins spent the first half of 2001 in Kuwait for Operation Southern Watch.

He had some advice for anyone considering joining the military: “You can do anything you want and the only person who’s going to stop you is you.”

Coming back to the states, Robbins said, he recognized the resilience of the American people. The demonstration of national patriotism, including the letters from school children, means a lot to military personnel, he added.

“I could never really have imagined (patriotism) as high as it is,” he said.

Gunnoe and her students are working on another batch of letters that they plan to send to the troops.

She said the students’ writing takes on meaning when assignments like the valentines to Robbins and the additional letters have a specific purpose.

The Sept. 11 attacks and the aftermath have been the subject of much study in Gunnoe’s class in the formal sense, from another writing assignment on the meaning of the flag to tracking current events, as well as informal airing of their concerns.

“This is still a topic of discussion. The students are interested in the military. They have questions sometimes daily. They bring articles in and we discuss what’s going on,” she said.

The class has occasional visitors on a variety of topics, including career development, but the students showed particular excitement about Robbins’ visit, Gunnoe said.

“I like to give them hands-on experiences.

“I can tell them things and show them in a book but I can’t give them as full an experience as those who have been there and done that,” she said.