By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

As of Saturday, 12-year-old Chris Newcomer could put a face to the stories of American wars he has read in his history textbooks at Beechwoods Elementary School in Greenhills.

Hundreds of faces, in fact.

They line the walls in a hallway of the grade school: black-and-white photographs of servicemen in America's wars, from World War II to the Persian Gulf, with yellowed wartime letters written to loved ones back home, medals for bravery under fire, newspaper clippings with screaming headlines shouting out the news from faraway places - the Ardennes Forest, Khe Sanh, the Inchon Peninsula.

It is Beechwoods' "Hall of Heroes" exhibit, a display painstakingly constructed by fifth-grade teacher Glenn Grundei, who spent months writing to veterans and veterans organizations, asking them to send pictures, memorabilia and letters to the students.

About 200 responded and Mr. Grundei turned it into a display aimed at showing his students that wars were fought by real people, many of whom live among them.

About 40 local veterans came to the school Saturday for an open house, where they mingled with the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students who have, for weeks now, been reading their stories and looking at their pictures.

For Chris Newcomer, it has been the best history lesson he has ever had.

"These are people who live right here in Greenhills and they were really there," said Chris, a sixth-grader. "This is really cool."

The faces on the school's walls were young with full heads of hair, portraits of trim young men in crisp uniforms, looking eager and ready to serve their country.

Bob McGeorge of White Oak and Pat Dilonardo of Reading stood in front of their pictures in the Korean War display, chuckling over how young they looked 50 years ago.

"Man, that was a long time ago," said Mr. Dilonardo, an Army veteran.

Mr. McGeorge is president of the Cincinnati chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association; Mr. Dilonardo is secretary of the group.

The two men often travel together to local schools to speak to classes about the war they served in.

"I think it is good for kids to hear from people who were actually there," said Mr. McGeorge. "It makes it real to them."

Dick Keirn of Springfield Township is another veteran who often speaks to schoolchildren about his war experience. He was a Marine in World War II, one of the Leathernecks of the Fifth Marine Division who fought at Iwo Jima.

"I think more young people are starting to think about the fact that some of the people around them, their dads and their granddads, served their country and made a difference," Mr. Keirn said. "For a long time, I don't think kids ever thought about it. But now I think they are starting to understand."

Two of those children who have begun to have a glimmer of the sacrifices made by those who fought in America's wars were 11-year-old Kari Campbell and 12-year-old Annie Grady, two sixth-graders at Beechwoods.

Saturday afternoon, after Mr. Keirn gave the assembled students and veterans an account of his experience at Iwo Jima, Kari ran up to Mr. Grundei and asked where the picture of her great-grandfather was, because she wanted to show Annie.

Mr. Grundei told her it was at the end of the hall, on "the table everybody bumps into."

The two girls took off down the hall, found the table with the pictures of a half-dozen World War I veterans and Kari proudly pointed out the 8-by-10 photo of her great-grandfather, Alfred Bernard Moloney, of the Army Signal Corps.

Nearby, 12-year-old Nick Mannira showed his buddies the photograph of his grandfather, Paul Fleming, a petty officer on board a destroyer during the Korean War.

Nick said he had never talked much to his grandfather about his war experience. "But I probably will now."

But whether he does not or not, his grandfather has already delivered a message to Nick and his brother, Tony, in the form of a letter addressed to them that was framed next to his Navy photo.

Informing the boys that he did not consider himself a hero, he told them they won't find "medals of silver, bronze or purple locked away in boxes on my shelves or hanging on my walls."

What they will find, the grandfather wrote, is "pictures of yourselves. You, my grandsons, are my reward."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com