Students get up close and personal with local veterans

Fourth-grade students at Heber Hunt Elementary got up close and personal with local veterans on Tuesday.

The students, divided into small groups, spent about 20 minutes interviewing local veterans.

Michael Tyler, fourth-grade teacher, said the students had been preparing the questions, working on their interview skills and exploring the branches of the military for the past two weeks.

“We brainstormed questions,” Tyler said, “before narrowing it down to eight questions.” The students also role played and practiced working as a group prior to the actual interviews.

“The students learned to collect what is important,” Tyler said.

Fourth-grader Katelyn Hammond, 9, and four of her classmates queried veteran Otis Thomas about his military career. Hammond learned Thomas joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 at the age of 18.

“I wanted to get away from all the hard work on the farm,” Thomas told the group.

The students grew quiet when Thomas told them how he earned two presidential citations.

“I got the citations for finishing the job,” Thomas said. “The officers were all dead.”

Thomas grew emotional when the students asked him about his military job and where he had served.

“I was in Iwo Jima,” he said, “and I was a rifleman.”

The students listened intently, pencils hovering over their papers, as Thomas spoke.

 A map hanging on the cafeteria wall was filled with green tags showing where the veterans had served.

Following the interviews, the students introduced their veteran to their classmates and shared a snack. As the children crowded around Thomas during snack time, they peppered him with personal questions about his life and likes and dislikes.

“Read a book,” Thomas said. “Read as much as you can because then you can travel in your mind.”

Students in La Monte also honored local veterans with an assembly held in their gym Tuesday morning.

Capt. Charlotte Boswell, from the Whiteman Legal Office, gave a speech and a slide presentation to all grade levels at La Monte. Boswell told the students she worked as a fourth-grade teacher before joining the Air Force.

“I’d done a lot of things,” Boswell said, “but I still didn’t know what a veteran was before I joined the military.”

Boswell explained a veteran was a military person who had served at least one tour of duty. As pictures of servicemen showed on the screen, Boswell said veterans come in all colors.

“Veterans look a lot like you guys,” Boswell said pointing to the older students. “You look like the face of the young military.”

Boswell told the group airmen stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base are responsible for contributing to getting the B-2 Spirit in the air.

“The B-2 is our weapon,” she said, “and we fight the war from Whiteman.”

As slides of servicemen in a variety of jobs flicked across the screen, Boswell told the students about jobs within the military.

“We have doctors, nurses, police and even singers,” she said.

Boswell urged the group to have self-discipline and continue their education before turning the assembly over to members of the student council, who showed pictures of Normandy before and after the battle in 1944. Student Council Member Shelly Taylor, 17, said the assembly is an annual event held to educate the student body about Veterans Day.

Melvin Ficken, commander of La Monte Post 520, closed the ceremony by reminding the students to thank veterans for their service.

“We (veterans) are a friend of youth,” Ficken said, “because they are the backbone of our country.”