By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – It was reading, writing and huge surprises on Thursday for two brothers who attend John L. Ory Communications Magnet Elementary in LaPlace.

Cody and Tyler Tamplain, in fourth and sixth grade respectively, were surprised by their brother James Tamplain in their classrooms. Tamplain had just returned from his deployment in Afghanistan as part of the 1084th.

Cody cried when James entered his classroom, and said that he can’t wait to play video games and throw football with his brother now that he is back.

Tyler said that he was shocked when he saw James, adding that it didn’t feel like real life.

James presented Principal Teri Noel with a flag to thank classes from the school for writing letters to the soldiers during their deployment. Last school year a sixth-grade class sent letters, and this year two second-grade classes and one fourth-grade class sent cards and pictures to the troops.

James said receiving the letters was definitely a morale booster for the troops and chuckled as he said that some of the letters were pretty funny.

Noel was thankful her students had the opportunity to have the experience of writing to the troops and to be part of the surprise.

“It makes something they hear about on the news, that seems so far away, so real,” Noel said.

After he surprised his brothers, James headed outside to greet students as they left school for the day. Without prompting, several students lunged to hug James and thank him for his service. Many of the students that he high-fived were students that had written letters to the 1084th.