US veterans visit WVHS history classes
WVHS principal Georgianna Diopoulos welcomed a group of area veterans to the high school on Monday morning. The retired military men were visiting history classes and sharing the motivations behind their military service, their duties and experiences while serving, and the career paths and opportunities that the military provided them.
“It is such a great benefit for our students to hear these in-person, real life stories, the perspectives and anecdotes that these gentlemen have, in the context of what’s being learned in the classroom,” said principal Diopoulos. “On behalf of our teachers, faculty, staff and our administrative team, thank you all for your service and for making time to join us today.”
The vets split into groups of three and four to address students in four classrooms across four periods.
Each discussed their specific roles in the military and how they came to serve. They talked about the specialized training that the military provided them in so many areas, which led to many interesting career paths after their service. The students found it particularly interesting to hear from veterans who were conscripted prior to the US changing to a voluntary military.
They also talked about how community is built through service, and that they developed a strong sense of civic responsibility through their service. Many remain involved in local organizations to this day. Leadership and teamwork were other topics of discussion, and the vets all agree that their service helped them develop valuable skills in both that they applied to great success during their duty and in their lives since.
One vet opened his part of the presentation with a question to the students: “When does history happen?”
One student answered “in the past,” to which he responded, “That’s right, but that past was someone’s present. Some of what you’ve been learning about the past, was our present — myself, these other gentlemen up here. So, there’s the past, that happened in our present, and that leaves us with… the future. That’s you, you are the future. So when I think back on the past — the things we did then, in our present — we did them to protect the future. We were doing them for you, we just didn’t know it yet.”
Thank you… Mr. Brennan, Mr. Carl, Mr. Coscette, Mr. Cosimano, Mr. DiStefano, Mr. Eckert, Mr. Gobinski, Mr. Grimier, Mr. LeMay, Mr. Martin, Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Purcell, Mr. Schacter and Mr. Wilson.
