Veterans

Mount Pulaski High School hosts Veterans Day Ceremony

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[November 16, 2021]   Typically schools close on Veterans Day and the students get a free day out of school. But this year the Mount Pulaski school administration opted to be in session in order to help the students learn about the meaning of Veterans Day.

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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