NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — Among the many ceremonies happening across the state for Veterans Day, middle school students honored those who served at the Iwo Jima Memorial in New Britain.
Eighth-grade students from John Wallace Middle School in Newington honored veterans at the Iwo Jima Memorial with emotional poems, original drawings, and musical performances.
“I lost one of my grandfathers. He fought in the war. He didn’t die in a war, but I feel like his honor, he served for our country, our nation, and I feel like he deserves recognition,” student Juliana Cashman said.
The duty to recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice was echoed by social studies teachers who organized the ceremony.
“I think it’s important to have our students honor veterans because they may or may not know veterans in their own life, but here, they’re able to see some veterans,” Brynna Perrault a teacher at John Wallace Middle School said.
Veterans like Marc Youngquist who served with the Marine Corps in Vietnam and the Connecticut National Guard in Baghdad.
“It’s not a feeling of one day for a veteran, because things come up every day that remind you of something. The smell of diesel fuel, tailgate banging on a big dump truck,” Youngquist said.
This Veterans Day ceremony with John Wallace Middle School students is a tradition that dates back to 1995. The man who started it is a survivor himself of a WWII battle.
Dr. George gentile founded the Iwo Jima Survivors Association and together they built the monument. Veteran Raymond Carrier maintains the site.
“It is a work of love. It has to be. That’s because I’m a marine — and marines were heavily involved in the Iwo Jima battle,” Raymond Carrier president of the Iwo Jima Memorial Historical Foundation said.
More marines lost their lives in the 1945 battle than any other single battle in U.S. History.
A fight for the future, never to be forgotten.
“They put up that flag and showed true bravery going through that war,” Student Jain Faliz said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
