Take a veteran to school program was a success
The Dominion Post
As a World War II veteran, past state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
and a current member of the West Virginia Veterans Council, I was honored to
participate in Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s West Virginia Cable Telecommunications
Association-sponsored Take a Veteran to School Day.
The event at Morgantown High School was one of 12 programs that took place in
West Virginia around Veterans Day 2008, and was supported by local cable
operators Suddenlink Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
I strongly believe that our nation’s rich heritage should be shared, and there
is no better way to achieve this than for student and the community to hear
first-hand accounts of military service, ask questions and meet actual veterans.
All of these things happened, thanks to the leadership of the WVCTA.
I was also one of the veterans selected by the WVCTA to have my first-hand
account filmed by WVU School of Journalism students. This footage will later be
archived in the Veterans History Project American Folklife Center in the Library
of Congress.
There are about 178,000 living West Virginia veterans and each deserves to be
recognized. As we lose veterans from any era, we also lose valuable lessons
about the price of freedom. The Take a Veteran to School Day program will help
us preserve our stories for generations to come.
Ralph Stump - Mount Claire
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