Web connects Butler County students with soldiers in Iraq

Web connects Butler County students with soldiers in Iraq
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, October 25, 2008



The presidential election, Sunday's Steelers game and post-traumatic stress disorder were just some of the topics that about 60 Seneca Valley High School students discussed Friday with two soldiers stationed in Iraq.

"Talking to real people there is so different than watching the news," said Alycia Acquaviva, 18, a senior at the school in Harmony, Butler County.

Capt. Andrew Stahura, Capt. Joshua Mendoza and an Iraqi translator, who helps them train members of the Iraqi military, spoke from Baghdad's Al Shula neighborhood in a 90-minute video chat over the Web.


For Stahura, 28, a graduate of Butler High School, the first order of business was the Steelers' chances Sunday against the New York Giants.

Mendoza, a New York City native, razzed Stahura by predicting a win by the "defending world champion Super Bowl winners."

When senior Maggie Weber, 18, asked Stahura for whom he planned to vote on Nov. 4, he answered like a professional soldier.

"I will be voting for the next president and vice president of the United States," he said. "We don't talk about that in uniform."

Technology allows those serving in Iraq to be as up to date as they want to be on sports, the election and pretty much any other news, Stahura and Mendoza said.
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