They cheered and asked questions like whether it was scary and said the whole experience was "cool."

The sixth-grade students at Holiday Park Elementary School in Plum thought meeting Maj. Matthew Kelly and hearing about his 7 1/2 months in Iraq, where he served as an orthopedic surgeon, was probably something they'd remember for a long time.

He shared descriptions of everything from thick, blinding dust storms to an encounter with a dying suicide bomber and told them how nice the Iraqi citizens are.

"It was really nice," Holly Kennedy, 12, said after Maj. Kelly talked of his experiences on the base near Tikrit, where he and other doctors treated both Americans and Iraqis.

"It was cool," agreed Kristyn Romell, also 12.

The students had been exchanging letters with Maj. Kelly and a few days before Christmas break started, they finally had a chance to meet him.

Maj. Kelly is a graduate of Plum schools, Pennsylvania State University and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center school.

Stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Maj. Kelly and his wife, Lori, and their four sons were in town to visit his parents, Jim and Barbara Kelly, for Christmas. Maj. Kelly's sister, Kristin Wesolowski, is a special education teacher at Holiday Park Elementary, and it was her contacts with the sixth-graders' social studies teachers that made the connections possible.

The sixth-graders learn about wars in history, teacher Melissa Bradfield said, so learning about this current war with the help of Maj. Kelly was a natural.

Maj. Kelly told the students about the dust storms when the swirling sand was "so thick you can't see your hand."

Yes, he said in answer to one student's question, he worked on injured Iraqi people as well as U.S. soldiers, alongside some Iraqi doctors.

He said he looked into the eyes of a suicide bomber who lived long enough to be brought to his facility and, since he's a "bone doctor," he treated a lot of arm and leg injuries as the result of bad car accidents.

"A lot of people were injured in a lot of different ways," he said.

But he learned a lot about the people as he worked with them and treated them at the hospital.

"The Iraqi people I met were just like us. They just want to survive like us," Maj. Kelly told the children.

One student wanted to know if the experience was frightening.

"Yes, it was very scary, more so before I got there," he said. It was the unknown that frightened him more than actually being at his base, working in the hospital.

Maj. Kelly brought some artifacts and souvenirs from the country with him to share with the children. Old currency, with pictures of Saddam Hussein on it, a tiny Iraqi flag patch and even a traditional red and white head scarf, given to him as a gift, were passed around for them to see.

Arabs generally eat a lot of chicken, boiled eggs and rice, as well as a food called flatbread. He acquired a taste for that flatbread, he said.

He also learned a few Arabic words that would help him communicate with patients, he said.

When not on duty, he passed the time watching television and DVDs, working on the computer and writing letters, lots of letters, Maj. Kelly said.

The worst thing about being in Iraq was being away from his family, he told the children.

Maj. Kelly's parents, his wife and some of their children watched from the back of the school library room as Maj. Kelly visited with the sixth- graders and several of the teachers.

Lori Kelly said having her husband home for the holidays was "awesome," especially for their children. The couple has four sons, including 5-year-old twins. the other boys are 8 and 18 months of age.

Maj. Kelly said he'd go back to Iraq if they needed him now and may go back some day in the future.

He said he'd like to take his family there, when it's peaceful so they could see for themselves what the country and the people are like.

Meeting those people, the "gracious" Iraqis who welcomed him, made his stint worthwhile, he said.

"A lot of people are trying to do a lot of good stuff over there," he said.