Two-Way Therapy : Gulf War: While serving in the desert, an Air Force counselor built a special relationship with his pen pals from Grant High.

Air Force Maj. Phil Moser’s job was to mend the psychological casualties of Operation Desert Storm--from the soldiers traumatized by the battlefront to those tormented by troubles on the home front.

But in an unexpected twist of war, Moser provided much of his counsel to a bunch of teen-aged civilians living on the other side of the world.

Moser, a social worker and counselor, exchanged more than a dozen letters during the war with students in Joanne Kajiyama’s freshman and sophomore English classes at Grant High School in Van Nuys.

When Moser finally met his pen pals during a visit to the school Monday, he revealed how their letters--which included requests for his advice on family and personal problems--buoyed his spirits during months of tedium at the 100-bed field hospital in the United Arab Emirates where he was stationed.

“During some of my darkest moments, you were my reason for being there in ways I didn’t expect,” said Moser, 46, who returned March 20 to Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson, Ariz. He made a special trip to meet the Grant students.

The 19-year veteran told the students that helping them with their problems saved him from the fear and boredom that plagued many of his fellow servicemen.

The Grant classes were among the 30 at schools across the United States that Moser corresponded with during his six months in the Persian Gulf, pen pals that he selected at random from boxes of mail sent to soldiers overseas.

But Grant is the only school that the native of Odessa, Tex., plans to visit in person.

“Something just clicked with us,” said Moser, who also brought his wife, Nell, and daughter, Vanessa, to Grant. “Of all my pen pals, they were the most special.”

Moser said he believes that his greatest contribution during the war was helping some of the Grant students.

At least one, suicidally despondent, eventually sought professional counseling at Moser’s urging, school officials said.

Students, meanwhile, said they learned more about service life during the Gulf War from Moser’s letters than from television.

Besides letters, students sent Moser baseball and football cards, magazines, even Three Stooges videotapes.

Kellie Spalding, 16, said she wrote Moser about the pressures she was feeling from her family about picking a college and a career.

“Writing to him helped me a lot,” Spalding said. “I’m interested in social work and he told me about cases he’s had and what different careers pay.”

The letters were two-way therapy, Moser said.

After spending months building and improving the Air Force field hospital, which was to care for F-16 pilots, Moser wrote to the students on Feb. 21: “We basically have run out of things to do except wait.”

Because of the low number of allied war casualties, the medical work at Moser’s hospital was limited mostly to accidents, pneumonia and stress.

“We were fighting against boredom, we were fighting the sand, we were fighting the bugs and we were fighting dysentery,” Moser said.

His biggest job overseas was to counsel soldiers suffering from family problems, especially those who had received “Dear John” letters from spouses who wanted to break up, Moser said.

The same mail that brought comfort to thousands of lonely servicemen and women brought emotional pain to others, he said.

“Everything would be fine until they got a letter saying the family is having problems,” Moser said. “Then they’d fall apart.”

While he provided comfort to them, he said, the students kept him emotionally whole.