YODER – Students of the Southeast High School and Elementary gathered on Monday in the gymnasium in honor of Veteran’s Day. 

The program began with the high school choir singing the National Anthem. Members of the American Legion participated in a mock marching drill in front of the student body as Jay Clapper, Southeast Ag Teacher, approached the podium. Clapper began telling students the importance of Veteran’s Day by explaining a phrase his grandmother often used when explaining her husband’s prior military experience, “You weren’t there,” for students to reflect on. 

A short video clip was played in honor of all United States Veterans.
Clapper then introduced Doug Chamberlain, of LaGrange. Chamberlain, a retire Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran and published author, presented a speech explaining the meaning of Veteran’s Day. 

Chamberlain began his message with the statistics of lives lost, wounded, or missing in action from each war. His voice began to shake when he introduced the statistics of Vietnam.

“In the Vietnam War, in which I served, 58,267 young American’s sacrificed their lives,” Chamberlain said. “An additional 153,000 were wounded. 1,584 are still missing in action.” 

The average age of the military men who died in Vietnam was 22.8 years of age. Statistics show in addition to the nearly 59,000 killed in action during the conflict, 75,000 were severely disabled and 23,214 were completely disabled as a result of their service. 

Chamberlain went on to explain of those killed, many were fresh out of high school and under 21 years old. 

“Why, you might ask, why would a 1,300,000 American lose their lives and 1,500,000 Americans be wounded, both mentally and physically, in America’s 78 recorded conflicts in the last 248 years,” Chamberlain questioned the student body. “How could the families of the 40,000 warriors that have never been found cope with the uncertainty surrounding their missing,” he added. 

Beth Simmons and the 5th grade began their presentation of America’s White Table, written by Margot Theis Raven.

“It was just a little white table, set for one person, even though nobody would be eating at it,” Simmons recited, “It was just a little white table set in dining halls of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Air Force since the Vietnam War ended.” Little by little, the children set up a little white table in front of the student body.

One student added a lemon slice and grains of salt to the place setting as they read the passage, “We place a lemon slice and grains of salt on a plate to show a captive soldier’s bitter fate and the tears of families waiting for loved ones to return.”

Another student pushed in an empty chair and read, “We push an empty chair to the table for the missing soldiers who are not here.”

Slowly the table was complete with a white table cloth, a napkin, plate, a candle and a red rose in a vase. 

“The greatest things we can give our veterans is not money, not fam but respect,” Clapper concluded. “We weren’t there. For all those who were there, are there and someday could be there, we thank you for your service.”