2014 Veteran's Day Celebration. Nov 11, 2014

Nick Conner a High School student who goes to my church invited me to be his guest at his schools 2014 Veteran's Day Celebration.  His school is Cincinnati Christian Schools, 7474 Morris Road, Fairfield, Ohio 45011. The celebration was held in their Junior/Senior High Campus Gymnasium. Those invited to attend were asked to arrive at 8:30, Nov. 11 for light refreshments. Students were assigned to sit with us to talk and make us feel welcome while we partook of the refreshments. When it was about time for the program to start they lined us up alphabetically by service and each of us had a student assigned as our escort and we were escorted into the area. We walked in on a carpet runner and led to our seat. We were announced as we came in and our name, service and time served was announced and this information was also projected on a screen. I was the first one escorted in followed by the rest of the Air Force members. If you look at the list of guest you can see that they are listed alphabetically. There were 44 of us all retired or out of the service except one man who is currently on active duty. One Navy veteran had 41 years of service. One Army veteran had served in WWII.

 Honoring Our Veterans Program

List Of Guests- There were 14 U. S. Army Veterans and 13 U. S. 

Navy Veterans

 List Of Guests- There were 5 U. S. Air Force Veterans, 2 U. S. 

Coast Guard Veterans, 1 U. S. Merchant Marine Veteran and 9 U. S.

 Marines Veterans

Each of us received  hand written thank you cards from students. My are quoted as follows:

" God bless you for volunteering to serve. No greater love is there than someone willing to risk their life for the sake of someone else. You are a friend to the country and I wanted to let you know that this citizen is a friend of yours. "Signed Jacob Oates.

" Dear Veteran, Thank you for your service and giving us the freedoms we have. Thank you for stepping forward when others step back " Signed, Thank you Lauren

" November 11, 2014.  Dear Veteran, I would like to thank you for serving us. You are a hero to us. Thank you for fighting for us. Without you we would not have freedom. You risked your life for us, and for that, I thank you. If I could pick a hero, I'd pick you! God bless you for fighting for us you did not have to do that but you did I thank you. I have questions for you. 1. How many years did you serve? 2. How long did you see your family? 3. What branch were you in? Sincerely Amanda ".

The program was well organized and went off without a hitch. The Bands,

Choirs and Soloist performed beautifully. The program was most impressive 

and was much appreciated by all veterans. In all the years I have served and 

been retired this is the first time I have ever been part of a program such as 

this and it was an honor to be asked to attend.

I hope to obtains some photographs of this program and if I do I will post an update.

Grandpa Bill ( Retired U. S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel )