Soldier awaiting deployment speaks to an East Side class on Sept. 11

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Staff Sgt. Robert McGuire, who is set to be deployed to Afghanistan with the Illinois National Guard in a few weeks, stopped by his wife Shelly McGuire's class at East Side School to give some lessons on the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag.

His lesson reminded pupils of what happened seven years ago -- the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crashed plane in Pennsylvania. After the attacks, Afghanistan was invaded, then Iraq.

"I am getting ready to go to Afghanistan in 2 1/2 weeks," McGuire said.

When he asked the class how many have a relative who has been sent to Afghanistan or Iraq, about two-thirds of their hands shot up.

The deployment will involve about 3,000 soldiers in the Illinois National Guard.

"It is the biggest deployment of the guard since World War II," Shelly McGuire said.

Robert McGuire is an infantryman and part of the 33rd Brigade combat team.

Shelly McGuire hoped the lesson on the flag and the pledge helps kids get beyond reciting the pledge and saluting the flag and learn what the words really stand for.

"Sometimes I think we say the pledge and don't know what it means," Shelly McGuire said.

Robert McGuire emphasized the more difficult passages in the Pledge of Allegiance, such as "indivisible." The McGuires defined the word for the class as "unable to be separated."

Indivisible could refer to the Civil War, when the nation was divided along regional lines, McGuire said.

"We never want what happened during the Civil War to happen again," he said.

The 13 stripes and 50 stars of the flag stand for the original colonies and 50 states. But the colors have significance too, McGuire said.

White signifies purity and innocence. We were a young nation when the flag was adopted, Robert McGuire said. Red symbolizes hardiness and valor and blue stands for vigilance, perseverance and justice.

The colors did not have meanings for the Stars and Stripes when the flag was adopted, however the colors in the Great Seal do have specific meanings, from which the meanings of the colors are derived.

Robert McGuire pointed out Shelly was in the Army before she became a teacher.

"So she probably runs this room like a drill sergeant," he said.

"I do not," Shelly McGuire said.

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