BEVERLY - The realities of war hit Sgt. Jeremy Gaul one by one.
For nearly 40 days the Vincent native and a member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne had to live in a small bunker in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Something as simple as a trip to the bathroom required him to load more than 100 pounds of protective gear.
Gaul saw his fellow troops with scrapes from bullets when al-Qaida barely missed, and the stretchers when the enemy didn't miss.
These are the stories Gaul told Fort Frye High School students Wednesday upon his return from this year's fighting overseas in Operation Enduring Freedom.
"Combat is a combination of getting really pumped up, like for a basketball game, and being the most scared in your life at the same time," Gaul told the history and government students.
Fort Frye social studies teacher John Bostic invited Gaul.
"I thought it would be good exposure for the kids to have an up-close personal look at war instead of just reading about it in a textbook," Bostic said.
Gaul delivered that personal look through sights and sounds, such as the sound of an enemy mortar shell whistling toward his troops - that gave Gaul his biggest scare. The mortar landed about 20 yards away, blowing chunks of ground everywhere.
"Lucky for us they were using old Soviet mortars left behind," Gaul said. "Instead of blowing up right there, it dug into the ground and then exploded."
Gaul said the close call still keeps him on edge.
"Even today, if someone whistles just right, it freaks me out," Gaul said.
Because of Gaul's locality and young age of 26, many of the high school students said the sergeant made an impact on their thoughts of war.
"In elementary school you always heard from the 85-year-old Legion guys, but to have someone just 10 years older than you, it makes it more real," student Alaina James said.
Gaul said his life drastically changed Sept. 11, 2001. Not only did he know he would soon see combat, but his son was born that very morning.
"My beeper went off in the hospital ... and I was at work by that evening," Gaul said.
In January, Gaul was sent to Afghanistan. He first protected bases in the south and then moved to fighting scattered enemy forces in the north.
"At first it was boring," Gaul said. "We did a lot of guard duty and digging in. A lot of us wanted to see action. When you're young you think that's the thing to do."
Eleven days of combat in up to 8 inches of snow at an elevation of 11,000 feet altered that mentality, Gaul said.
"Here (in the United States) we'd train and play the Department of Defense version of laser tag ... there (in Afghanistan) we were loading and firing live ammunition."
Gaul said he was also surprised to see a very diverse enemy on the other side. His binoculars showed him many different races and cultures. Not just Afghan Taliban were part of al-Qaida forces.
When one student asked about war with Iraq, Gaul said he wasn't looking forward to it, but he would go.
"The standard of living that we have today comes at a price," Gaul said.