CRANBERRY TWP — Jonathan Greenert, a four-star Navy admiral who survived the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, has traveled to 60 or 70 locations worldwide, and holds enough Navy medals to hold down a copy of “War and Peace.”

But Greenert, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011 as the 30th Chief of Naval Operations, had one message for the fifth-graders he addressed Friday at Ehrman Crest Elementary/Middle School.

“You know who I really am?” said the affable admiral. “I’m a kid from Butler.”

Greenert told the students he grew up on Walnut Street in Butler and attended St. Paul’s Catholic School, now known as Butler Catholic School.

After graduating from Butler High School, he was accepted into the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he learned what an admiral is, because he was required to memorize naval ranks.

Greenert thrilled the students with tales of his travels in the Navy, fun facts, and the importance of keeping shipping lanes open and safe so goods used by Americans every day can remain on store shelves.

He asked students where they were from originally, and got answers such as New York City, Wichita and even London.

He then asked where the students had visited and was met with replies such as Ghana, Aruba, Cuba, Italy and Mexico.

Greenert had a message to the students as a result of the questions.

“People all over the world are the same, more than different,” he said.

Greenert then turned the tables on the students and said he would give a special coin from a distant country to those who asked him a question.

The students asked questions of varying themes, and excitedly received a coin after Greenert’s answer.

One student asked about being inside the Pentagon when it was hit by a hijacked airplane on 9/11.

“There was a big explosion, and I was knocked over,” Greenert recalled.

He and his co-workers thought a gas line had exploded.

“Then we looked out the window and saw a small piece of an airplane wing,” Greenert said. “We knew planes had hit New York City.”

He said everyone in the building quickly exited as sprinklers drenched them and the smoke increased. He described the scene as “awful” and “scary.”

Another student asked where he lived and what he did when he was their age.

Greenert replied that he played baseball in the summer, swam at the Butler YMCA in the winter and sometimes visited the Butler Public Library to look at magazines containing pictures of faraway places completely unlike his hometown.

“I said ‘You know, one day I want to travel,’” he recalled.

The coolest place he’s ever been is Istanbul, Turkey, he said, where residents of many faiths live together in peace and harmony. His favorite place was Tokyo due to its cleanliness and the friendly and courteous residents. His least favorite place to visit was a small town in Connecticut in the winter, and a place he’d like to visit is New Zealand.

When a student asked his favorite sport, Greenert strode over to teacher Forrest Haffey and grabbed his Pittsburgh Steelers lanyard to hold it up, causing a squeal of delight from students and staff alike.

After Greenert had answered 25 questions and handed out 25 coins, he announced that he would leave the rest of the coins so everyone could have one.

He then imparted three pieces of advice on the youngsters peering wide-eyed at the first — and likely only — admiral they’d met: Always keep in touch with your mother as you get older, dream big and travel as much as you can.

Robert Paserba, a former Butler Area School District superintendent and Greenert’s brother-in-law, told the students that teacher Kathryn Henderson gave her class the assignment of writing to someone in the military.

Maddox Paserba, his grandson, wrote to Greenert, who is his great-uncle.

Henderson asked the lad if he thought Greenert would come visit Ehrman Crest students.

“And here we are,” Robert Paserba said.

He thanked his brother-in-law for his heroic service in the Navy, which elicited applause and hoots of appreciation from the fifth-graders and their teachers.

Paserba also told the students to remember the visit from Greenert.

“There are very, very few four-star admirals who ever don this uniform,” Paserba said.

Students said they were impressed with Greenert’s presentation, which was engaging and informative.

“I thought it was cool that everyone could learn about what it’s like to be in the Navy and see a four-star admiral,” Adam Paserba said of his uncle’s visit. “He’s just part of the family, but when I really think about it, he’s a four-star admiral.”

Allison Bromberg said she enjoyed hearing about all the locations around the world that Greenert visited.

She said his presentation made her want to travel more.

“It was just really interesting,” Allison said.

Ben Ansberry summed up the thoughts of the students and teachers who were fortunate enough to hear Greenert’s presentation Friday.

“It’s really cool to actually hear from an admiral,” he said.

Greenert was thrilled with the students questions, as well as the modern, state-of-the-art Ehrman Crest school.

“Their questions were more thoughtful than I would have come up with at their age, so I’m impressed with them,” he said.