Their "close encounters" with the military this school year have ranged from a young soldier in fatigues all the way up to the Commander in Chief -- President George W. Bush. First came a visit from a CCS graduate stationed in Iraq who was home on leave.

Reserve Spec. Lazaro Hardee paid a surprise visit to the school to say hello to former teachers, staff and schoolmates. A member of Alpha Company's 111th Signal Battalion, Hardee specializes in communications, but has also guarded extremely high-ranking political prisoners in Baghdad.

When office manager Sandra Sloan asked him to attend a Friday morning chapel service where the middle and high school students could meet him as a group, Hardee agreed.

There, in the gym where he used to play basketball for CCS, the 20-year-old Hardee was introduced during a chapel service, honored with a special rendition of "God Bless the USA," and presented with an enormous, five-pound chocolate bar.

The chapel service ended with the students forming a ring around the soldier and praying for his safety and effectiveness. Next, an outreach to the Navy took shape in the K-5 class of Mrs. Cherri Bingham, whose 21-year-old son Richard is serving in the U.S. Navy. When Richard wrote home to thank his family for their frequent letters and packages, he mentioned the dozens of sailors in his unit who never received anything at all during mail call.

Bingham's kindergarteners agreed that what those lonely sailors needed was something huggable -- teddy bears! Letters went home and some of the children's families donated teddy bears, while others gave the money to buy them.

The other elementary classes at CCS joined in, as did families in the Binghams' church and beyond. Eventually, Bingham shipped 200 teddy bears -- each pinned with a personal note expressing love and support. And Richard Bingham reported that his shipmates were thrilled with their huggable "mail."

The school's next military encounter came during the American Patriot Tour, the annual eighth grade field trip to Washington, D.C. The tour is led by local author and historian Rod Gragg, a CCS board member who teaches history and Bible to juniors and seniors. People's Underwriters underwrites a portion of the cost of the annual trip. Over the years, Gragg has developed his own "insider's tour," which attracts parents and members of the school's supporting churches. A highlight of the trip is a chance for students to re-enact key events in the Civil War battle of Gettysburg.

This year, in addition to visiting the White House, the monuments, the museums and the battlefield, the eighth graders also placed a ceremonial wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. CCS parent Steve Jones of Granny's Florist donated the wreath.

The ceremony at the Tomb made a deep impression on the eighth graders, who repeatedly mentioned the solemn, dignified team of elite military guards who watch over the Tomb night and day.

The fourth encounter took place back in Conway, where CCS's ninth graders plus several seniors met dozens of former military men and women on Veteran's Day.

On that cold, rainy morning, the students walked along the parade route to hand out American flags and distribute programs for the dedication ceremony of the new veteran's monument on the Horry County Courthouse lawn. Most significantly, however, they conducted interviews with a number of the veterans who attended the ceremony, following a list of questions prepared by their history teacher, Brenda Long.

All of the other ninth graders agreed with Elizabeth Carter, who said, "It had an amazing effect on us to hear their stories." "I have so much respect for them," Brittany MacDonald said, thinking back on the experience. And classmate Jordan Kuykendall summed up the male perspective: "It takes a lot of guts to do what they do." While most of the ninth graders reported that they walked up to different veterans and requested an interview, two girls said a vet approached them and said he wanted to talk. "It just spilled out," said Brittany Collins and Brittany Floyd. "He must have talked with us for an hour," describing his experiences disabling land mines in Vietnam. Long said she plans to compile the interviews and donate them to the Horry County Historical Society.

While the 9th graders were interviewing veterans, CCS's 10th, 11th and 12th graders were arriving early at Arlington Cemetery in Washington. Security was tighter than usual -- President Bush was scheduled to lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and make a Veterans Day speech. By getting there early, the CCS contingent wound up sitting front and center, a mere 20 feet from Commander in Chief Bush, as he paid tribute to the nation's fallen servicemen and women.

Sandra Sloan recalls the impressive sight of dozens and dozens of elderly veterans carrying flags as they flanked President Bush. "The students were awed by the solemn nature of the ceremony," she said, "and the deep personal sacrifice represented by the cemetery's rows and rows of simple white crosses."

Visiting Washington and seeing the President in person lent special meaning to Bush's second inaugural on January. Tenth grader Lindsey Davis was under the weather and at home on Inauguration Day, which gave her the opportunity to watch the ceremonies on television. "I kept saying, 'I've seen that room! I've seen that sculpture! I've seen that monument.'" George Henry Martin, another 10th grader, who was at home recovering from bronchitis, also watched Bush take the oath of office and observed with a smile, "I've seen that blue necktie!"

Martin said seeing and hearing the President on Veteran's Day caused him to pay closer attention to the inaugural proceedings and deepened his interest in the President's message of freedom. Two of his classmates actually attended the swearing-in. Twin brothers Matt and Skip Gragg accompanied their father Rod to the ceremony -- and again arrived early.

"We were the first people in the Gold Section, so we were up front," Matt said, "but it was still a long way from where the President was...I looked behind us and there were crowds of people all the way down the Mall toward the Washington Monument. We could see Secret Service agents on top of the buildings beside the Mall and some of them had television cameras aimed at the crowd. There was also a police helicopter that kept flying in circles up above everything."

This time, the brothers were introduced to the military's musical specialists.

"At about 10:30," Skip said, the Marine band began to play music like 'From the Halls of Montezuma.' Then a choir from the U.S. Navy sang. The Navy choir was really good.

"I'm glad I went," he concluded, "because it was all a pretty amazing thing to see."

Now that the nation's military seems more personal to them, CCS students are including servicemen and women in the prayers during their first period Bible class.

"They're associating names with faces," one faculty member observed, "and they're realizing that the nightly news from Iraq involves real people making real sacrifices."