Veterans Speak at Divine Redeemer School

by Nathan Lasher

The students at The Divine Redeemer Catholic School paid close attention yesterday morning as they learned about Veteran’s Day from the nearly 25 Veterans in attendance.

The American Legion Honor Guard was the first group to speak to the students. First, they demonstrated the proper way to fold a flag while explaining the symbolic meaning for each of the 13 folds.

“That flag means a lot,” explained Honor Guard Commander James Stiffler. “That is a symbol of our Country. No matter where you go and you see that flag, that’s a symbol of our Nation. You can say, ‘I’m home.’ To a man in the Service, when he goes some place and he sees that American Flag flying at an American Embassy, that’s a part of Ford City; that’s a part of Kittanning; that’s a part of Pennsylvania; that’s a part of the United States. He’s home. If he’s wounded or killed, especially if he’s killed, that flag accompanies him from wherever he was killed to home where he is buried, and then that flag is given to his family.”

The Honor Guard also explained the proper methods for disposing of a worn American Flag.

“When you retire a flag, it goes through a service, and it’s a respectful service,” said Stiffler. “We have a program on the first Saturday of June every year. We take old flags and we go through the service and retire them, never to be used again. We replace them with a new one, always bright and shiny. You’ll notice at the grave yards, the flags are replaced every year before Memorial Day. They are retired. They go through a service, and then they are burned and the ashes are scattered. They are not put into a garbage can. They are scattered over an area. That way they can never be used, and they go to the earth the same as our comrades that have served.”

After the Honor Guard was finished with its presentation, the students sang songs in order to honor the Veterans in attendance. The songs included “America, the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

When the students had finished singing their songs, two of the Veterans in attendance gave short speeches. Those Veterans were Robert Zwire, a Veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Jim Boarts, a Veteran of the U.S. Navy who was in Vietnam.

“If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely go again,” said Boarts. “My father was a World War I Veteran, my brother was in the Army, and I have a good bond with the guys that I served with. We keep in touch with each other, and it’s a brotherhood. That bond can not be broken. I’m proud to be an American, and I’m proud to be a Veteran.”

At the end of the program, Divine Redeemer Principal Nicalena Carlesi had a message for the students.

“The most important thing you need to learn is that they were there for all of us, and they allowed us to have the freedom that we have,” said Carlesi. “We need to give them a really big thank you today for that.”

Before going back to their classrooms, the students had a chance to interact with the Veterans. A few of the Veterans shared some of their old medals, pictures, and stories individually.

Print

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.