A talk of heroes : Veterans Day brought tales of medal recipients to Oakdale.
Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Daily Record photograph by Charles Fowler Four U. S. military veterans were recognized during a Veterans Day program at Oakdale Junior High School in Rogers on Tuesday. From left are Allan Baker, 91; Jesse Coker, 87; Roy Reynolds, 87; and Elza Tucker, 90.
ROGERS — “ I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. ”
It was a good way to open an assembly on Veterans Day. The students at Oakdale Junior High School took only a little time to quiet down. They seemed to know the importance of the day. Undoubtedly, some will one day understand what Veterans Day means more than others.
“ Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming ?”
The school’s choir, band and orchestra led the assembly in “ The Star-Spangled Banner. ” Members of the ensembles wore the school’s colors: white and purple. With purple being the combination of red and blue, the colors seemed appropriate, but subtle. Band members, in their marching uniforms, had stripes down their pant legs that matched — in style if not in color — the Army dress uniform of a colonel that was worn by Mayor Steve Womack.
“ In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, that mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce heard amid the guns below. ”
It was an homage — lyrics taken from the poem by World War I veteran Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae — to the past, to those soldiers long dead and to those who continue their work today. As Womack said later, Veterans Day is a celebration of not only those who died, but also of those who lived and those who still toil for their country. In the audience were four men — Womack introduced them one by one — who served so long ago, when Nazi Germany threatened the world. And seated next to Womack was one who had recently arrived home. Sgt. Jorge Moran, a combat engineer, was in Iraq only a week ago. Many of his friends and fellow soldiers, he said, would be in that battleground even longer.
“ We will continue to do our job until we all come home, ” Moran said.
The traditional medley of armed forces anthems drew servicemen and women to their feet as their branch was called, but not before Womack reminded the students what military service means.
Womack told of Jack Lucas, the 14-year-old who lied about his age to join the battle in World War II; who leapt on two grenades to protect his fellow soldiers; who, after many surgeries to heal him, returned with the Medal of Honor to junior high school to finish his education.
Womack told of Robert Nett, who won the Medal of Honor in World War II and continued to fight in Korea and Vietnam.
Womack told of Ed Freeman, the Army helicopter pilot who risked his life to rescue wounded soldiers in Vietnam and won the Medal of Honor in return, who was made famous by the movie “ We Were Soldiers. ”
All three of the veterans died this year.
These, Womack said, were his heroes, the men whose example he tried to follow. The kids he meets — they have different heroes, mostly their parents, teachers, pastors, community leaders. Not many admire the men in uniform, at least not by name.
Some, someday, will. And some, someday, may be the men and women who people like Womack admire and aspire to be.
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