SHARON — Sharon Central School students took the lead in welcoming nine of Sharon’s military veterans to the school’s gymnasium for its annual Veterans Day assembly dedicated to honoring the community members who have served the nation.
After SCS pupils and staff filled the gym at 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 10, teacher Jill Pace offered a brief introduction before promptly turning the podium over the student council, whose members handled the morning’s proceedings. Overall, 12 members of the council — Amaira Rashid, Franklin Galvin, Chris Galvin, James Smith, Charlotte Olsen, Jack Flanagan, Sam Norbet, Jack Plouffe, Paige Bailey, Colin Bailey, Eivin Peterson and Guiseppe Socci — took turns leading the assembly through the Pledge of Allegiance, a brief history of the “Star Spangled Banner,” and several encomiums to the veterans in the room.
The servicemen were then called one by one to the stage to briefly share their stories, with several even fielding questions from the enthusiastic crowd of elementary and middle schoolers. Tate Begley shared that he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1994-1998 and was a military police officer on U.S. bases on the west coast.
“How did you become a veteran?” came a voice from the crowd when he opened the floor for questions. “By serving my country,” he replied.
Other questions were slightly less topical. “What’s your favorite food?” asked one student of John Perotti after he had finished explaining the meaning of his decoration from a year spent serving in the Vietnam War. “Burgers!” he replied enthusiastically.
Jim Hutchinson, Bob Loucks, Brian Kenney, Ray Aakjar, and Dave Peterson also detailed their time in service in places like Vietnam, Africa, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Robert Hock relayed that he had spent 1963 to 1965 in the Navy stationed in Turkey where he “never saw a ship.” Instead, he intercepted communications from communist countries in the Eastern Bloc.
The final veteran to take the podium was Justin Rios, whose daughter sat amongst her peers in the crowd. Rios has been in the Army for 14 years, and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. He had a message to the students: “If you see a Vietnam veteran, let them know they’re welcome.”
