COVINGTON — Special Forces said a special thank-you at Holmes High School Thursday.

        Sgt. Michael Fouse of the Army's 5th Special Forces Ranger unit gave Carrie Cox's freshman reading students a first-person account of serving in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Michael Fouse, an Army Ranger, made a five-hour trip to Holmes High School Thursday to share his experiences with teens who wrote to his family while he was away. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Sgt. Fouse, 33, one of the first soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, drove five hours Thursday from the unit's home in Fort Campbell, Ky., to thank the students for sending his wife, Kim, and daughters Katelyn, 5, and Ashley, 18 months, handmade Christmas cards full of words of support.

        Narrating a slide show of photos his unit took in the place they called “The 'Stan,” Sgt. Fouse let the students try on a blue burka and two traditional brown Afghan hats from the Pansheer Valley.

        He showed them a thin shawl the average Afghan Northern Alliance soldier wore as cold weather gear to supplement his rubber shoes and pajama-like thin pants.

        Sgt. Fouse wore native dress, living with the Northern Alliance allies in the field as the Rangers helped guide the air assault.

        “They were waiting for us to get there to start the offensive. We hit the ground and 12 hours later, we were setting up our (laser) sights and calling in the aircraft,” he said.

        Sgt. Fouse told the students that the Afghans would eat rice and goat meat when they could get it, and a staple his unit called “dirt bread.”

        “It was a pita-like bread they would cook on a rock, and sometimes it did have dirt and rocks in it,” he said.

        Afghan resourcefulness impressed him. Afghanis made jackets by lining the empty food sacks sent by relief agencies with thin blankets, and made a satellite dish out of used Gillette shaving cream cans.

        “The Afghan people are frail looking, but very resilient,” he said.

        Sgt. Fouse showed photos of surrendering Taliban soldiers, and of land mine injuries. Land mines are prevalent in Afghanistan, Sgt. Fouse said.

        After the final fall of Mazar-e-Sharif, the Afghans wanted to play buzkashi with their American allies. It's more of a tradition than a game there, Sgt. Fouse said.

        The goal is for riders on horses or camels to toss the carcass of a goat from one to the other and try to reach a scoring zone.

        Sgt. Fouse was successful at learning buzkashi, but it was more difficult to spread American traditions.

        “I tried to teach them the wave, but it didn't work,” Sgt. Fouse said.

        Holmes freshman Savannah Rice said it was an honor to have Sgt. Fouse to speak to their class.

        “I put a lot of effort into it (the Christmas greeting) and wrote some things I thought his family would appreciate,” she said.

        Freshman Alexie Brown said he wrote that he was glad for what Sgt. Fouse and other U.S. troops were doing in Afghanistan, and that he and his classmates appreciated their sacrifice.

        Ms. Cox, who is married to a former Fort Campbell soldier, told her students after the war began that she knew of a family that needed to be shown that people cared.

        One of the cards — to Katelyn and Ashley — read: “I just wanted to tell you that your daddy is doing a very good thing helping the United States trying to find the bad guys. He'll be home as soon as he can. — your friend, Jessica Crowell”.

        “I opened it up, that was just unbelievable. It helped boost our spirits,” Mrs. Fouse said at Holmes Thursday.

        Sgt. Fouse told the class that life as an American teen is tough sometimes, but it could be worse.

        “It's better to have it hard here and have the opportunities, than somewhere where those opportunities don't exist,” Sgt. Fouse said.

        Sgt. Fouse gave all the students a certificate of appreciation for “warmth and support of the Fouse family.”

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