Gentrup had only been home for two weeks when his old friend Carly Doubrava invited him to share with her kindergarten class. Decked out in full uniform, Gentrup caused a ripple of excitement among the students when he arrived June 6, armed with a laptop and some souvenirs.

Using a globe as a visual aid, Gentrup pointed out the path that he took to get to Iraq from California. "We went on an airplane and we flew 18 hours," Gentrup said. Then, the Marines had to drive 600 miles to get to camp. "That took us all day long, to drive down there."

Gentrup said the weather was as warm as 130 degrees and everyone had had to wash their clothes by hand, eliciting exclamations from the class. "We camped out in the dirt," Gentrup said. He also showed a photograph of the inside of a tank, causing oohs and ahs from the students.

The Iraqis, Gentrup said, "were happy to see us there. So they started hugging everybody and gave us flowers." Displaying a picture of a Saddam Hussein statue being toppled, Gentrup said, "These people didn't want that statue anymore in front of their houses. So we helped them take the statue down."

Some of the Iraqis with whom the Marines interacted were the same age as the Country Lane kindergartners. One little girl in Gentrup's pictures "had a little boo-boo on her arm, so we gave her a Band-Aid and helped her out," he said. "We also stopped a bank robbery and we saved $3.6 million in U.S. dollars."

Kindergartners examined Iraqi currency and a Pepsi bottle cap that Gentrup had brought back from Iraq.

Gentrup also explained the various medals that were hanging on his uniform. Gentrup, a 1995 graduate of Leigh High School, has served in the Marines for 2 1/2 years.

The kindergartners were intrigued by Gentrup's presentation, crowding around his laptop to look at photos. "My mom was born in that country," announced one girl.

"I've been training to be a Marine in my play room," a boy told Gentrup.

The students presented Gentrup with notes and drawings they had made, thanking him for coming to their class. When it came time to individually take pictures with Gentrup, some elected to don his hat, smiling happily.

Saratoga resident Paige Brodrick said she liked Gentrup's talk, and he was the first person from the military whom she'd met. Brodrick said she'd contributed to the scrapbook "a drawing of us holding the flag."

Brodrick's mother, Rona, said her daughter had been excited about the visit when she came home from school that day. "She said, 'Mom, he had a funny story to tell us about him washing his clothes in a bucket because he had no laundry machine,' " Brodrick said.

Doubrava said when she heard Gentrup was home, she thought it would be a good opportunity for her students to learn about the war and meet a real member of the military.

"A lot of my kids like to check out books about the Army and Marines from the library," Doubrava said. "They love the Marines sticker that Eric gave them."