FORT SILL, Oklahoma (May 4, 2021) -- “In a cave in the woods, in his deep, dark lair, through the long, cold winter sleeps a great brown bear,” read Col. Richard Harrison, Air Defense Artillery School commandant and chief of ADA, and deputy commanding officer of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill.
Harrison was the guest reader at Kayce Morris’s kindergarten class April 30, at Freedom Elementary School here. It was one of a couple activities at the school that ended Month of the Military Child (MOMC).
One of the students selected the book “Bear Snores On” from the class library. It’s the story of a bear hibernating in his cave only to wake up and see a bunch of uninvited animals. It was written by Karma Wilson.
The 5- and 6-year-olds giggled as Harrison added sound effects to his reading, including bear snores and sneezes, and mouse squeaks.
Concluding his 25-minute reading, Harrison asked the children to pledge to do their best every day at school.
Morris said her students were excited to have a visitor in the classroom.
A lot of their moms and dads are Soldiers, and they’re happy to know other Soldiers care about them and want to do activities with them, she said.
The reading event was the highlight of his day, and an opportunity to get out and say thank you, and really show children that they are appreciated, the colonel said.
“We couldn’t do our jobs without our kids being resilient and moving with us,” said Harrison, who is a father of three.
Harrison said he wanted the students to see not only are service members here to protect them, but to communicate with them and laugh with them.
“Perhaps there was a child in there with a parent who is deployed, and to see me in uniform brings back a good memory of their parent reading to them at night,” Harrison said.
1st Lt. Tyshaun Carter, aide-de-camp to Harris, said he and his wife, Traci, stress to their four children education is paramount, and reading skills are at the forefront of that. He said the reading was entertaining for the kindergartners.
“The kids really loved it. They had questions, and they enjoyed the book,” Carter said.
At 1:15 p.m. Freedom Elementary students filed out of classrooms to get a healthy dose of Vitamin D and enjoy the MoMC parade of vehicles.
Led by a Directorate of Emergency Services police officer, a line of military trucks, and personally owned and decorated vehicles entered the school grounds from the south and passed by throngs of purple clad school children who waved and cheered to the drivers.
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