U.S. Marine visits Kids Corner
Wendy Johnson
The Pine Journal

Young people in the Kids Corner School Age Care got a glimpse – up close and personal – of a soldier similar to the ones they are supporting through their Operation Interdependence (OI) initiative.

United States Marine Sergeant Anthony Payne paid a visit to the Kids Corner group in their classroom at Cloquet’s Washington Elementary School on Monday. Garbed in full dress uniform, Payne came to talk to the youngsters about his experiences serving in Kosovo, Africa and Iraq.
Payne, a native of Hibbing, enrolled in the Marine Corps right out of high school and has served with the Corps for the past six years, most recently as a machine gunner in the infantry in the Middle East. He is currently stationed on extra duty, assisting with recruiting efforts in the Duluth area.

The Kids Corner students will be sending letters, pictures and personal supplies to soldiers from this area who are currently deployed overseas as part of the OI initiative. They have planned a series of fund raisers this summer to help bring in money to support their efforts, including lemonade stands, car washes and the sale of patriotic beaded key chains, necklaces, pins and other accessory items.

Payne answered questions for the young people during his visit on Monday, and here are a few of them, along with his responses:

Q. What’s it like to fight in a war?
A. It can’t be explained. It’s something that a person has to experience for himself to understand.
Q. How many wars have you won?
A. I’ve only fought in one, so I’m1-0.
Q. Did we win the war in Iraq?
A. Yes.
Q. Is it warm in Iraq?
A. Yes, it was something like 130 degrees during the daytime, but it’s a very dry heat. It feels hot, but you don’t sweat that much.
Q. Did you get that bad guy, Saddam or whatever his name was, who was running away from us?
A. Yes, we did, but there are others we are still trying to find.
Q. Where did you sleep when you were in Iraq?
A. We slept out under the stars. It was the biggest sky I’ve ever seen. We slept in sleeping bags and had to watch out to make sure there weren’t any scorpions in them when we crawled in at night.
Q. What kind of food did you eat?
A. We had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and they were very good. The beef stew was my favorite, but we also had a lot of other things, including vegetarian meals with pasta. Each one had its own built-in heater, and all we had to do was pour water into it, wait a little bit and it was nice and hot.
Q. Did you ever have an Iraqi person come up and thank you for what you were doing over there?
A. Yes, it happened all the time.
Q. What kinds of supplies did you like most to get in care packages from home?
A. Toothpaste and toothbrushes, baby wipes, disposable razors and any kind of candy small enough to carry in our pockets, such as Jolly Ranchers.
Q. What’s it like to be home again?
A. Awesome. When I come home in my uniform, people come up to me and say ‘Thank you for doing what you’re doing so we can still have the freedom to do what we want.’