REGIONAL SCIENCE FAIR RECEIVES BOOST

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- David McElreath won't be teaching in the classroom for a while or spending time debating issues as a member of Faculty Senate at Southeast Missouri State University.

That's because he has been called to military duty in support of Operation Desert Storm.

An associate professor in the criminal justice department at Southeast, McElreath is the first faculty member to be called up for military service since U.S. troops were first deployed to the Persian Gulf last August.

But McElreath, of Cape Girardeau, down played the significance of that fact.

"I'm not the first Southeast representative to go by any means," he said prior to his departure for Camp LeJeune, N.C., Wednesday. "We have a number of students already serving."

McElreath, a reserve officer with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade stationed at Camp LeJeune, received word of his orders on Feb. 8.

"I expected it," said McElreath. "I used to be with a unit out of St. Louis and they have been overseas since November."

McElreath's unit will spend 30 days training in Europe. "We will then return to Camp LeJeune and await further assignment. From there, it depends upon what is happening in the world," he said.

The Southeast faculty member is a Marine major, who has been in the military for 16 years. "I was commissioned with the Army out of the ROTC program at Ole Miss in 1975," said the Oxford, Miss., native. "I joined the Marines in the late '70s."

McElreath has been an instructor in the department of criminal justice since 1979. He was also working with the dean of the College of Health and Human Services, Dr. Robert Boissoneau, this semester on a research project regarding faculty morale.

"I really enjoy working for the university and am looking forward to coming back here," said McElreath. "The support I have received following my orders has just been outstanding."

McElreath's teaching assignments for the semester will be divided up among three faculty members. "I really regret that my students have been caught in the middle. Losing their professor this far into the semester is not easy," he said.

McElreath and his wife, Bonnie, have three children.

REGIONAL SCIENCE FAIR RECEIVES BOOST