Honor a Veteran

We had a wonderful Veteran's Day assembly at school last week for all the students. We started off with some patriotic songs. They all know them as they learn them in first grade. We then had two special guests. Father and son, veterans of WWII and Vietnam. Dad was quite elderly as you can imagine and his son spoke for him and told us all his story.

His father was a bomber pilot and while on a mission his plane developed engine trouble. The plane fell back from formation because they couldn't keep up. They didn't have an escort to protect them and German planes found them. They were shooting at the plane and killed the gunner in the back of the plane, things were looking dire. The decision was made to jump from the plane as it was going down. While helping his fellow soldiers get ready his parachutte opened inside the plane. He then had to jump without knowing if the 'chutte would open. Well it did and as the others will floating down with him the German's were shooting them. He played dead and landed safely but not before seeing his plane crash and burn. He was the only one to survive that day. Some French living in Germany hid him in their home for several months and helped him escape to Spain where he then came home. In the meantime his parents had received a missing in action letter from the Air Force/Army (the were combined at the time). He brought this letter with him to our assembly as well as a piece of his plane that he managed to salvage.

I was very moved by all this and almost in tears (if you knew me that wouldn't surprise you, I can be tough but have a very soft heart, especially for children, elderly and dogs). Anyway, I have never had seen 450 children so quiet and listening. Even they understood what a powerful story he had. I just had to go and meet them afterwards to tell them thank you .

So thank you to all of our veterans. My father who was in the Army during peace time, my father-in-law during the Korean War/Conflict and our nephew who served in the Army for 7 years finishing his service as a Sargeant in the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell,Kentucky after a tour of Iraq.








If you're looking for a good movie for Veteran's Day viewing I recomend "Memphis Belle"