If the weather finally turns a corner toward spring balminess in the coming weeks it may be nudged by the overwhelming outpouring of warmth seen at the West Tisbury School for principal Michael Halt, who returned to the school this week after a 15-month tour of duty with the U.S. Marines Corps Reserves in Afghanistan.
As his silver pickup pulled into the school parking lot on Wednesday morning, a throng of hundreds of students and teachers reached a level of delirium normally reserved for royal nuptials. When Mr. Halt stepped out of the car he was quickly mobbed by a mass of students who formed a barricade of hugs that Mr. Halt struggled to break through. As some of the older students approached him Mr. Halt, did a double-take at the difference a year had made in his pupils.
Eventually the ecstatic crowd made its way into the school gymnasium for a touching tribute to the returning Marine.
“I’ve got to tell you I’m a little overwhelmed,” Mr. Halt announced to the school. “I cannot find the words to describe how good it feels to be back home. For me being back home doesn’t just mean being back on the Island — although that’s incredible. It means more than simply being back with my family — though they’re amazing. For me really being home is being back here with all of you at the West Tisbury School.”
The crowd erupted again. Mr. Halt said he doubted the gym had seen the same level of excitement since its production of Pirates of Penzance.
“Everyone should get a chance to feel this good once in their life,” he said.
The moving ceremony featured both musical and poetic tributes to the principal. Mr. Halt, a man not entirely comfortable with adulation, could be forgiven for sitting back and indulging in the spectacle as he casually sprawled on the floor at the center of the gym. Fourth graders gave their best rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas adjusted to reflect Mr. Halt’s 15-month absence (“On your third month away we mastered our first MCAS, Yay!”) while eighth graders performed their own version of Hello Goodbye (“We said goodbye, but now we say hello”). But when a tinny brass section began to ring from the gym sound system and the fifth grade began its musical tribute Mr. Halt stood at attention and sang along.
“From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land, and sea . . .”
After the ceremony, which ended as it began, with Mr. Halt besieged by a horde of hug-happy munchkins, he spoke in his office about the dramatic transition from military to civilian life.
“This place is such an incredible place to work,” he said catching his breath. When Mr. Halt returned from Iraq in October of 2007 he said he didn’t give himself enough time to decompress, a mistake he did not duplicate this time around.
“When I came back last time I felt a desperate need to show people how dedicated I was to the school,” he said. “I left the Marine Corps and got to California on a Monday and immediately was back into school on Thursday. I think I rushed into things too soon. This time I had a chance to reconnect with my wife in California and I’ve been back on the Island for a couple weeks so it’s been a much easier, restful and enjoyable transition.”
It has been a long journey back to West Tisbury from Kabul, Afghanistan where Mr. Halt served as a colonel with the Marine Corps Reserves in the operations side of the war.
“Before I was involved more with the tactical side,” he said, referring to his stint with the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, also known as the Seabees, in Camp Fallujah, Iraq. “It’s two different sides of the coin, both very important to what we’re doing over there, but it gave me a broader understanding of all the different aspects of our effort.”
While he was there he would often receive letters and handmade well-wishes from the school and, he said, he did his best to respond.
“There’s nothing that feels as good as holding a picture some student has drawn for you,” he said. The ever-increasing connectivity of the world also made it easier to interact with his students from afar, but he said the technology was not without its complications for other service members.
“For some guys who have young families I’m sure it’s tough to have to watch them grow up on Skype as opposed to be able to just concentrate on what they’re doing,” he said. “But for me it was nice to have that sort of reach back.”
Mr. Halt is eager for the spectacle of his return to subside so that he can dig into the workaday charges of an elementary school principal.
“The outpouring of love is overwhelming but what I’m really looking forward to is getting back into the classroom and start making those personal connections again,” he said.
Although he has had to leave this school community twice at the bidding of his country, students will be happy to know that Mr. Halt expects that his current deployment in the principal’s office will be his longest.
“I don’t see anything in my future except for the West Tisbury School,” he said.
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