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At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning junior high
students were transported over to the high school and joined high
school students for the school’s first Veterans Day assembly held on
this November 11th in the Ed Butkovich Gymnasium.
Local veterans of the American Legion Color Guard were on hand to
present the Colors. After the Pledge of Allegiance and the National
Anthem, Superintendent Fred Lamkey welcomed the crowd, which also
featured members of the community, and he expressed the importance
of the students learning about this day.
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Stan Manes, a 1983 MPHS graduate, was the
featured guest speaker of the event and he gave a history lesson to
the students. Manes loves history, in part because his dad, Harry
“Bud” Manes, was a U.S. History teacher at Elkhart and Mount Pulaski
schools for 25 years.
Manes presented many facts to the students and also incorporated
some stories in his speech.
After reading the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, Manes
touched on what it means to be a veteran.
“As we move forward and continue to think about what it means to be
a veteran, I want to share a couple of things,” said Manes. “There
is no greater fear for any of us as veterans, especially those who
were lost, to be forgotten.”
Manes paused and looked at the crowd of young people and said again,
“The greatest sadness is to be forgotten.”
“While we see the events in Afghanistan unfold,” Manes continued,
“most of us were not real happy about it, but it’s a natural force
of human history that you will have ebbs and flows in victories in
war and victories in peace. But at the end of the day, all of my
colleagues and all of my friends, we want peace. And we want people
to be free. We want young ladies to go to school. When I was in
Afghanistan they never had that opportunity.”
Manes also spoke of J.P. White, a young man who once attended school
in Mount Pulaski and who died on August 11, 2006 while serving his
country.
“The freedom that we bought by bloodshed of people like J.P. White,
whose dog tags I carry with me almost everyday,” said Manes. “I
carry his dog tags with me as a reminder that J.P., the son of Jimmy
and Robin White, formerly of Mount Pulaski, was 19 years old and
killed in Afghanistan in an RPG attack. J.P. never got to live those
freedoms. He gave his life so that you will have the opportunities
going forward. So that we don’t ever forget and that is why I am so
glad to see so many of you in this crowd today.”
Manes also spoke of Army values like loyalty, duty and respect.
“I can tell you from basic training with every race and ethnicity
you can imagine thrown together to where in the first four months of
our Army existence we turned into a bunch of green,” said Manes. “We
were just Army green. It didn’t matter if you were from a small town
in central Illinois or an intercity kid or a Western rancher, we
were all thrown together and we were just Americans. We all messed
up, just like Americans. We were all beat down, just like the young
Americans who we strove to be, to the point where we came out and
they actually then allowed us to be called a soldier.”
“So that respect and tolerance is learned very early on,” said
Manes. “I’ve traveled the world from Afghanistan to Georgia to
Korea. I’ve seen so many different cultures and if you do not have
respect for other people’s culture, you will not succeed in life
because everybody is different. You have to understand or best make
sure that we appreciate other cultures.”
Manes told a quick story of an interaction he had with an Afghan
national police chief, who had a Christmas tree on his desk and his
ringtone on his phone was “Jingle Bells.” This helped break down a
barrier between the Army major, Manes, and the Afghan national
police chief.
The Afghan national police chief noted that he just loves Christmas
and what it stands for. “He was tolerant of our Christian values as
we were tolerant of his Muslim values,” said Manes.
Manes also emphasized the selfless service of a soldier.
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 “Put the people next to you, to your left or
right, in front of your own self interests,” he said. “That’s what
it’s all about. If you talk to anybody who’s been in combat, you
don’t have many opportunities if you’re not there for your buddy on
your right and on your left. At the end of the day, morals are what
they are, we go fight and do what we’re going to do but at the end
of the day, it all comes down to fighting and surviving as a team.”
At 11 a.m. Manes asked for the crowd to stand and
observe a moment of silence followed by the playing of “Taps” by a
member of the Mount Pulaski High School band.
In closing Manes asked the crowd to remember veterans and their
families and to thank a service member when given the opportunity.
He finished by simply saying “God Bless America,” and a huge round
of applause followed.
Other notes from the assembly included the
announcement of a veterans wall which will be created at Mount
Pulaski High School. MPHS Principal Heather Fricke said the new
“Those Who’ve Served” wall will hang in the lobby at the new west
gym entrance. She said the names of all individuals who went to MPHS
and served in the military with their graduation year, if
applicable, will be noted. Other military members from schools that
the high school now serves will also be recognized.
Winners of the Veterans Day essay contest from each grade were also
recognized. Those individuals recognized were:
James Stiner - Freshman
Colt Selinger - Sophomore
Walker Allen - Junior
Aidan Schneider - Senior
Aidan Schneider read his speech to the assembly and in it he talked
about our country being divided and offered the question, “Where
will this great nation go from here?”
As the ceremony came to a close, Superintendent Lamkey also told the
students to invite a veteran they know to next year’s ceremony. He
also commended the student body for being very respectful during the
ceremony and noted how proud he was of the students.
[Teena Lowery]
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