HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Ask a veteran about war and each one will have an incredible story to share. WFMY News 2's Tracey McCain caught wind of one such story about a Veteran in Pennsylvania who had an unbelievable and decades-old connection with the Triad.
Private First Class Ronnald Randall was 19-years-old when he went to war. He says he was rambunctious, but at the same time, scared.
"I said Pap, I'm going to Saudi Arabia, I'm going to war, Pap. I'm going to war. I don't know if I'm going to see you again," said Randall.
The teenager from Pennsylvania was sent to the Iraqi border to help the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C. during the Persian Gulf War.
Letters from 8th grade students, not much younger than he was, kept him going.
"Dear Friend, my name is Misty Cochran. I go to Ferndale Middle School. I am in the 8th grade. I am writing to show you that someone is really thinking about you, while you are over in Saudi Arabia," read Randall.
Another letter reads: "Sept. 6, 1990. My name is Rhonda and I'm in the 8th grade at Ferndale Middle School. I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking about you. And I am behind you all the way. I hope you return back safely."
"When I saw these children writing to us soldiers, even though we were still children ourselves, it gave purpose to the reason why we were there."
Randall survived the war and when he went home to a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, he had those letters in his ruck sack.
"I was going to say just throw them away. What do I need them for?"
But he kept them.
Twenty-three years later Randall brought the letters back to Ferndale for a moment he thought would never happen.
"It was one of my classes that wrote the letters," said Ferndale Middle teacher Elaine Chapel.
Chapel taught North Carolina and U.S. History to the 8th grade class who wrote Randall the letters in 1990 and remembers the day they mailed off the letters.
"We never really knew, we just hoped the soldiers would get the letters," said Chapel. "To be 13, I don't know if I would have understood it at that age, but they did. They really wanted our soldiers to understand we backed them and supported them."
With Chapel's help, we searched for and contacted the students who wrote Randall those letters. The ones who wrote back wished they could be there.
But we found a new generation of students who are just as appreciative.
Students at NC A&T Middle College learned of Randall's story and honored the Veteran with a surprise pep rally. It was a heroes welcome from strangers, Randall never received when he returned from the Gulf.
A surprise, decades in the making all thanks to letters reminding this Veteran someone cared.
