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A third-grade student was sobbing as she approached Clint Cobb.
“She’s afraid you’re not coming back,” he was told by an adult nearby.
Cobb knelt down beside the child and then gave her a hug.
A third-grade student was sobbing as she approached Clint Cobb.
“She’s afraid you’re not coming back,” he was told by an adult nearby.
Cobb knelt down beside the child and then gave her a hug.
“When you’re in sixth grade,” he said, “I’ll be here.”
She smiled and had her photograph taken with him.
Behind Cobb rested a giant yellow ribbon. It will be on a tree in front of Beulah Elementary School until the sixth-grade social studies teacher returns from military service in Iraq.
That should be sometime in April 2011.
Cobb was honored Friday at the Valley, Ala., school. Almost 800 students marched into the school gymnasium waving American flags.
Most were dressed in red or blue, the same colors as the paper stars decorating the walls.
Cobb’s family and friends were also on hand as were several students from Beulah High across the street who felt they needed to be there.
“Everybody loves Mr. Cobb,” one said, getting her visitor’s badge.
Sixth-grader Desi Carter danced a “Victory” praise dance and sixth-grader Kaylynn Williams read the poem “Because of You, I Am Free.”
There was a slide show featuring students and teachers holding a flag with the words “We Love You. Thank You for Serving Our Country.”
A prayer was also said for Cobb. Sixth-grade teachers, some with tears in their eyes, presented him with the ribbon.
“All of this has really made me feel loved,” Cobb said afterward. “It makes me feel appreciated. It is something I will never forget.”
Cobb, 41, has served in war zones before. While in the U.S. Air Force, before he became a teacher, he served in Desert Storm and in Bosnia.
“Lots of places,” he said.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves. Cobb is now part of a Coast Guard unit out of Mississippi.
“Yeah, I’m a little surprised to get this assignment but when you sign to serve, you sign to serve,” he said.
He will be working in Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving with security for high value assets.
Cobb, who has a wife and four children, is also a youth pastor at Pine Grove Methodist Church.
“He is a good man,” said Beulah principal Weldon Parkman. “There will be a big hole in the community with him gone. We had a great celebration today and I’ll be ready for another when he returns.”
