Veterans Day at FMCS 2008

(please note the slide show to the right) What a great day! Instead of taking the day off and totally missing the reason for Veteran's Day, FMCS invited 14 veterans to join us and speak to our kids. They started the day with a special breakfast from the National Junior Honor Society, the national anthem sung by our MS choir, and then they were escorted to their "tour of duty" - 2 classrooms to speak, 40 minutes each about their time in service, what they did in the service, and what it means to be an American. (In the picture on this post, Jim Pancoast talks with the third graders about the day he was there for the Normandy invasion and a promise he made to God in a foxhole)

Each of the veterans were given a "thank you" from the school that included this poem:

Did My Son Have To Die?

Cindy Sheehan asked President Bush, "Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"

Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die in Vietnam?"

Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in Korea?"

Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"

Another mother asked President W. Wilson, "Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"

Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?"

And yet another mother asked President G. Washington, "Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"

Then long, long ago, a mother asked, "Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"The answers to all these are similar -- "that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."

Thank you to all of our Veterans for being here today!