A dream coming true

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in an occasional series about former Newport-Mesa students who graduated from high school after Sept. 11, 2001, and the paths they’ve taken.

NEWPORT BEACH -- Shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, a soldier walked unannounced into a special-education classroom at Newport Harbor High School. Most of the students, occupied with their homework, didn’t notice him. But instructor Corrie Rausch nearly did a double-take.

The young man in uniform, Pvt. Brian Bearss of the United States Army, had been her student for three years. When he entered her Resource Specialist Program class, he had difficulty focusing his attention; now, he was trained to do one of the most precise jobs in the world.

“This is Brian Bearss,” Rausch told the class of slightly more than a dozen students, putting an arm around her prize pupil. “He joined the Army this year. He’s here to say hi.”

Bearss, 19, entered basic training this August and flew home from Missouri Tuesday night. Two weeks from now, he will be at Fort Riley in Kansas, learning how to be a military transportation specialist. Before continuing to pursue his lifelong dream, however, he decided to pay a visit to his alma mater -- and surprise his former teachers, none of whom knew about his path since graduation.

“That’s what you live for as a teacher,” said Rausch, a resource specialist, recalling Bearss as a hyperactive freshman who matured in four years into a diligent worker.

When Bearss announced that he would be venturing to Iraq within the next year, some of his teachers bit their lips. Students overheard and raised their eyebrows. But despite the bad news coming back from the Middle East, despite the roadside bombings and mounting casualties, Bearss expressed no fear about going to serve his country. If anything, he sounded enthusiastic. .

“How often do you have a job where you can go out all the time and play and have fun?” he asked Rausch.

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For Bearss, war is not a game, but it is exciting -- fast-paced action, world adventure, the belief he is fighting for a cause. After graduating from Newport Harbor, he spent a year at Golden West College and Orange Coast College, but tired quickly of school and signed up for the Army this summer.

A sophomore on Sept. 11, 2001, Bearss is among a generation of high school graduateswho were in class on the day of the worst terrorist attack in American history. However, the Costa Mesa native had loved the service long before the morning he turned on the television, watched the second plane slam the World Trade Center and ran to wake his parents.

As a child, Bearss often gathered with his friends to play with G.I. Joe action figures. With the Cub Scouts, he toured the naval base in San Diego. One of his most vivid childhood memories is camping with the scouts at Camp Pendleton and watching helicopters land across the freeway from the campsite.

“I was watching these 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds doing something with their lives and helping the country,” Bearss said. “I knew I wanted to do that.”

Bearss’ family has a military history. His grandfather flew in the Air Force in Korea, while his other grandfather joined the Navy and both of his uncles served in the Army. However, his parents, Wayne and Kathy Bearss, didn’t push service on either of their children. When Bearss first announced his intention to serve, Kathy tried to dissuade him.

“Just like every mother, I was very unsure,” Kathy Bearss said. “But he’s his own man, so he has to do what he has to do. Once he decided, that was it.”

At the same time, his parents saw the military as a possible boon. Bearss suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the service is all about staying on task.

“We knew, or had the feeling, that the combination of discipline and motivation would do him good,” Wayne Bearss said.

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Bearss’ ultimate goal in the Army is to fly a Black Hawk helicopter. He cites the Ridley Scott drama “Black Hawk Down,” about the United States’ ill-fated 1993 mission in Somalia, as one of his favorite movies. But if his training goes according to plan, he will enter Iraq next October as a truck driver.

His job will be to transport weapons, laundry, food, soldiers, whatever the latest assignment is. As a result, he may be a potential target for roadside bombs.

“That’s my biggest fear right now,” he said. “They can take a 7-Up can and make it be able to do good damage to a Humvee. They’ll take dead animals’ bodies and fill them with explosives. They’ll use stalled cars, and those can take out a vehicle or two.”

Tuesday afternoon, with the temperature outside 10 degrees below freezing, Bearss waited in uniform at the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for an airplane to take him back to California. Around 8,000 other soldiers waited alongside him. As the hours ticked slowly toward departure time, strangers began to step out of the crowd and greet him.

“All day I was getting praises and praises, people telling me, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing,’” Bearss said. “These are people I don’t even know.”20051227is4sj5ncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Army Private Brian Bears shows former teacher Carrie Rauch how to properly wear a beret. Bears went to Newport Harbor High School, where he graduated in 2004, to visit teachers that had influenced him positively as a student. 20051227is4slpncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Army Private Brian Bears hugs job developer Jennifer Sonke during a visit to Newport Harbor High School Wednesday.