More
than 120 U.S. military veterans from Spring Branch were honored by students and
staff at Spring Forest Middle School on Nov. 12 at the school’s annual Veterans
Day Celebration. This year’s campus gathering was one of the district’s biggest
ever salutes to the men and women who have served to keep our nation protected
and free.
Click here to see more photos from this event.
Spring
Forest Middle students and PTA hosted a morning breakfast for veterans and
their families. The breakfast was followed by a program and recognition of each
veteran in the school gymnasium. Yearly event sponsor is Heritage Texas
Properties on Memorial Drive.
Included
among the many military honorees this year were several Spring Forest Middle
staff members. They included the head band director Joshua Ritchie, who is a
sergeant and a unit bugler in the Reserve 395
th Army Band. Sgt.
Ritchie led the student band and he also performed “Reveille” and “Taps” on his
bugle during the recognition event.
“I still
have to close my eyes when I play ‘Taps’ in front of veterans,” he says. “It’s
an emotional song. You can’t play ‘Taps’ without thinking about the sacrifices
that others have made.”
A
graduate of Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls and Alabama’s Auburn
University, Ritchie has taught and led the student band four years at Spring
Forest Middle. For the Army Reserve Band, his unit fills for other Army bands
across the nation. He believes that the military is undervalued among too many
Americans as a career option for young people.
“The
military as a whole is viewed as something of a fall-back position for
students, as a place maybe for people who are not good enough in other areas. I
think that the military should be viewed as a good, solid career option. All
kids should be encouraged to think about the military as a career possibility,”
he says. It paid for much of Ritchie’s higher education.
Also
winning a huge student cheer at the Veterans Day event was social studies
teacher Robert Fleming, a former Marine. He has taught at the middle school for
four years, too.
“My
family was military, but I think that I looked at Veterans Day as pretty much
just another day before I was in a situation and setting like this,” he says.
“To see so many veterans gathered all in one place puts this day in perspective
for me.”
Several
student speakers served as program hosts. They included Randall Royall,
president of the Spring Forest Student Council; Anna Skelly, president of the
National Junior Honor Society; Nicholas Karolys, Student Council vice
president; Tam Vo, Honor Society vice president; and Bolin Mahaffey, the Honor
Society secretary.
“We had
our first Veterans Day program in 2001, just two months after the 9/11 tragedy.
The first year, Spring Forest Middle honored approximately 40 veterans. Our
program has steadily grown each year, and is now known as one of the premier
Veterans Day events in the City of Houston,” Student Council Leader Royall
said. “We want to thank our community, and especially our veterans, for
enthusiastically attending each year.”
Honor
Society Vice President Tam Vo reminded students and veterans what America means
to those who are seeking freedom and opportunity.
“I want
to share a little of my life story with you,” she told the crowd. “My family
moved here to America from Vietnam two years ago. When I came to the United
States, I spoke very little English. I was sad to leave my extended family in
Vietnam, but happy to be able to attend a good school here in Houston.
“To me,
the United States represents freedom and hope and the opportunity to pursue
your dreams. That’s the reason why my family came here – to have a better and
brighter future. My personal dream is to one day become either a doctor or an
engineer. I want to thank the veterans for all they have done to serve this
country and provide this opportunity for me.”
School
Principal Kaye Williams introduced SBISD Board of Trustees members Chris Vierra
and Katherine Dawson, as well as other special guests including Executive
Director of Secondary Schools Sofia Petrou.
Event
keynote speaker this year was former U.S. Marine Capt. Daniel Priest, a
graduate of Texas A&M University and a member of the Corps of Cadets.
Priest,
who joined the Marines after 9/11, deployed three times to the western Pacific
and to the Middle East where he led a combat platoon in Iraq. The Houston
native received a Navy Commendation Medal and the Naval Achievement Medal.
He told
students that the Marines gave him the chance to do “cool stuff” like ride in
helicopters and carry machine guns, and much more.
“In the
Marines, I had the chance to help people half way around the world live more
safely,” he said. “I was able to meet and become best friends with some really
great men from all across our country. It is an honor to serve the United
States of America, our great country.”
In Iraq,
he learned another lesson. “During training, I thought that I would learn about
how different the Iraqi people were from us. I was wrong. This was a big lesson
for me. Most of the people in this world are very much like us. Men want to go
to work. Women cook for their families. Kids go to school and play soccer. They
want to raise their families, worship their God, and most of them want to live
in peace,” he told students and veterans.
“This
was a very important lesson for me to learn. I learned that I must always treat
people with respect and care about them – and find ways to help them. When we
are good to people, they are usually good back to us. As Marines, we were able
to make the lives of those Iraqi people safer. And because of that, they
thanked us for how we were able to help them,” the former Marine said.
Noting
that the Marines he served with have gone on to other careers, he told students
to be focused and open about their future paths. Priest now works in medical
device sales involving pain control.
“Most of
my Marines set plans to go to college after they got out of the Marine Corps.
They knew the importance of setting those goals in their life, and they were
going to study hard so that they could reach their dreams. They set goals that
were specific to make sure that their grades were strong,” he said.
“It may
sound funny to y’all being here in school, but we were a bunch of boys over in
a war zone, and we were talking about our favorite science classes and our
history lessons, and remembering reading Shakespeare in high school,” he also
said.
“No
matter what you choose to do with your life, doing your best in school now is
important to helping become the person you want to be,” he said. And it’s OK
not to know what you want to be. “I didn’t at your age know until much later
that I would be a Marine!”
The
Veterans Day program at Spring Forest Middle was created by Jana Gwinn, who
continues to be a planner and organizer.
