GALION — St. Joseph Catholic School honored a longtime tradition of honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice – our country’s veterans.
Staff and students at the school on Friday welcomed military veterans to a special ceremony filled with prayer, gratitude and the hope for peace. The annual event, which also includes a luncheon, began more than 20 years ago.
“The biggest thing of course is the veterans, but in a school like this, the power of prayer is important too,” said Jeremy Shull, this year’s organizer and a fifth- through eighth-grade teacher at St. Joseph.
Those attending gathered around the peace pole on North Liberty St., where they called on God to banish violence and keep in His mercy men and women who serve in the military and those who have died in the cause for freedom.
The honor guard of the Galion Crestline Veterans Military Funeral Detail conducted a military-style gun salute.
Al Forry is a 15-year member of the honor guard as well as a U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, who enlisted in 1965.
“A lot of Vietnam veterans had a really rough time when they came home,” said Forry, who served on a submarine off New London, Connecticut, and along the East Coast. “To me it’s nice to be recognized for what we did, which was serving our country.”
Students made patriotic placemats for the veterans, which decorated the red, white and blue tables in the school cafeteria. Father Paul Fahrbach sang an original number – “Always Respect the Flag” – with the audience joining in.
Richard Simmons, 82, sat at the luncheon with his wife, Mary, and granddaughter, Alexandria Barnett. Simmons served in the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1976 in Germany, Iceland and Okinawa, Japan.
“I have a lot of memories,” said the Vietnam War veteran who, like many attendees, was wearing his military cap. “It’s nice that people recognize you did the service, but it was kind of like a regular job for me over the years.”
St. Joseph School in Crestline hosted a Veterans Day program in the gymnasium earlier in the day with U.S. Army veteran Jim Greter, a 1954 alumnus and an honor guard member who served in Vietnam.
Principal Dan Salvati said that, following the Pledge of Allegiance, students had an opportunity to ask questions. Like Galion, the parochial school has saluted veterans of foreign wars for many years.
