Veterans groups, schools celebrate veterans

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Groups and schools in Manning, Summerton and Turbeville came together around the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month last week to celebrate veterans.

Turbeville Mayor Dwayne Howell spoke early Nov. 11 to a group of students and veterans gathered at East Clarendon High School during a program sponsored by the Turbeville Ruritan Club.

“This is a day we get together to recognize those men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces,” he said. “This is not only a recognition of those who went to war to fight. There are lots of folks who went off the war and gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives. We celebrate and remember those people on Memorial Day in May. On Veterans Day we honor all veterans.”

“This is the day we honor our heroes and remember their achievements, courage and dedication,” Howell added. “We can’t help but feel awe as we stand in the midst of patriots and the family and friends of those who so nobly served. You’ve made our Armed Forces among the most respected and most powerful in the world, and we thank you for that.”

At a service hosted by the Manning-Santee American Legion Post 68 and the Vietnam Veterans of America Post 960, Pastor David Carlson echoed Howell’s sentiments.

“We could go through the different wars and different numbers of people lost and the different number of those lost in specific wars,” Carlson said. “But that’s not what we should focus on. We have many men and women who have served our country in all capacities and ways. We come here today on the Clarendon Courthouse grounds to thank them for that service.”

Veterans Day was initially recognized as a federal holiday as “Armistice Day” in November 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson to recognize the one-year anniversary of the end of World War I, then thought to be the “War to End All Wars,” Carlson said.

“Think about one year later, all the emotion and all of the feeling, all of the thankfulness for those who came home and all of the sense of loss for those who did not,” Carlson said. “Our boys were home and war was over. People never thought there would be another conflict like that one.”

However, after World War II and the Korean War, President Dwight Eisenhower changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor all service members who served in those terrible conflicts and those that preceded them.

“Anyone who puts on that uniform and who is willing to take a stand for freedom and who has been a part of standing and protecting that freedom, we honor them today,” Carlson said.

Howell advised students at East Clarendon High School to foster in themselves several qualities.

“Courage, pride, determination and dedication to duty and integrity are all qualities necessary in someone serving in the Armed Forces,” he said. “These are all qualities needed

to serve a cause larger than oneself.”

A former principal of East Clarendon High School, Howell took his time at last week’s ceremony to talk about education and its relation to the American Dream that soldiers protect each and every day.

“Twenty-five percent of all young people from the ages 18 to 24 are not eligible to serve in the military today,” Howell said. “Twenty-five percent. The factors keeping them from serving include, No. 1, education, No. 2, crime, and No. 3, overall fitness.”

Howell said what students “do or do not do” as they sit in their classrooms is “to your downfall.”

“We tend to think about our military today in the terms of the stuff it has: smart weapons and tanks, unarmed vehicles like drones that gather so much attention, powerful jets,” Howell said. “But still the most powerful tool is our men and woman. Without them, those tools don’t mean anything at all.”

Howell said one in four high school students don’t graduate on time.

“All of you can really graduate in three years, so why does it take five?” he said. “Why waste your life? Why not take those years and do the best you can do and become the best educated person you can be to serve not just your country but society?”