Published: November 16, 2009 12:23 pm      

Local schools salute veterans

Veterans were solemnly honored at schools across the county Wednesday, with students and teachers eager to pay tribute to the soldiers, sailors, Marines and members of the Air Force who have served in the United States military.

At North Laurel High School, the entire student body gave an impromptu standing ovation to the veterans who attended their school’s Veterans Day ceremony, which included performances by the choir and band, the reading of the poem “In Flanders Field,” and the reading of “Old Glory.”

Lt. Sven Martinez, senior naval sciences instructor, spoke to the students about the importance of the day, and made reference to a small, cloth-covered table that had been set up at the front of the gym.

“Here is a special place of honor,” he said. “It is set for one. This table symbolizes the members of the military who are missing from our midst. They are commonly called POWs or MIAs. Many of us call them brothers.”

Martinez explained the table is small, representing the “frailty of one prisoner against his oppressors.”

The table cloth covering the table was white, which stood for the nation’s purity. On it was a rose, which “reminds us of the families and loved ones waiting for them.” On the bread plate was a lemon, representing “their bitter fate,” and grains of salt, symbolizing “the tears their families have shed.”

“On this Veterans Day 2009, on this day of remembrance, let us pray in the name of those who have fought in this nation’s wars, from the blood-soaked fields here at home, to small islands in the Pacific, to the skies over Europe, in rice fields on the other side of the world in a place called Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan to the sands of Iraq,” Martinez said.

Over at London Elementary, a festive ceremony was attended by several veterans to whom the students sang patriotic music they’d painstakingly rehearsed. The tribute ended with the release of 124 balloons, each of which had a note attached for the recipient.

Last year, one of the balloon recipients was Bob Welch, of Louisville, Ohio. A U.S. Navy veteran who fought in the Vietnam War, he responded to the note and was asked to speak at this year’s ceremony.

Welch spoke poignantly to the students, with poems he’d written woven within the text of his speech. After recounting various inspirational war stories, Welch explained to the 600-plus students the most important thing they own isn’t their Wiis or video games or iPods.

“It’s freedom,” he said. “There’s nothing in this country you can own that’s more important than freedom.”

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.