By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

Lance Cpl. Adam Penn, recently returned from Iraq, was welcomed with hugs from teachers and staff members Monday morning when he visited his “pen pals” at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Joplin.

Penn, 22, also met with an hour’s worth of questions from pupils who wanted to know everything about life as a Marine and life in Iraq.

The corporal, who attended St. Mary’s, brought back the letters he received from the children and thanked them for taking time to write.

“It meant a lot to me when you guys sent these to me,” Penn told the pupils. “I read them over more than once. It always put a smile on my face, no matter how bad my day was.”

Penn, whose duties included patrols in Ar Ramadi and Karmah, said before talking to the children that U.S. and other coalition forces are making progress in many of Iraq’s major cities. Power and water are being restored, he said.

“As far as the insurgents go, things are improving. Their numbers are dwindling,” said Penn. “In some places, they are welcoming the coalition forces.”

Penn returned from Iraq in October after seven months there.

He stopped to visit Gloria Skelton’s fourth-graders and Judy Clarkson’s third-graders. Both teachers remembered Penn from his days there as a student.

Several pupils wanted to know if he was ever hurt.

“No,” he said, adding that he was told his unit, the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, with between 800 and 1,000 troops, was the first infantry battalion to come home from Iraq without suffering any members killed in action.

“Did you get to fire bazookas and stuff?” one child asked.

“No,” said Penn.

“Oh, man,” replied the child, noticeably disappointed.