FORT BENNING, Ga. - It's "living history," said Margaret Koger, gifted education teacher at McBride Elementary, who coordinated a Veterans Day assembly Tuesday for third- through fifth-grade students.
Several veterans attended the program, including some from the 192nd Infantry Brigade, McBride's Partner in Education, and from the VFW Post 5180, in Seale, Ala.
Koger said interacting with and listening to veterans helps the children better understand what the veterans' service means to America.
The keynote speaker was COL(R) Ralph Puckett, a veteran of Korea and Vietnam who received two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, three Legions of Merit and five Purple Hearts during his 28-year Army career. Puckett gave credit for his accolades to the Soldiers who served with him and today's veterans.
"I know that everything I was ever able to accomplish is because I was carried on the shoulders of my Soldiers," he said. "Without them, I would have been nothing."
Puckett said students should appreciate veterans, including their parents who currently serve.
"When our country asked, 'Whom shall I send'' your parents said, 'Send me; I am here.' Everybody who serves today is a volunteer," Puckett said.
"They're volunteering, which I think is the basic responsibility of a citizen of this country, and that is to be prepared and defend his country when he is needed."
It's important to remember the sacrifices made for the sake of freedom, he said.
"One of the things I think we should remember always - every day, not just Veterans Day or July the Fourth or any other patriotic holiday - freedom is not free," Puckett said. "It has to be bought. It has to paid for. It has to be defended. And our Soldiers are defending it. They're defending it by being stationed throughout the world: over 100 places, and they're defending it by preparing themselves for battle right here."
After the program, children shook hands with the veterans.
"I thought it was pretty cool to shake somebody's hand who was in the war," 11-year-old Nathan Vanover said. "They're the ones who made this country what it is today, and they've kept us safe. They're the ones who've founded freedom."
As part of the living history project, McBride students in third through fourth grades will hear from a different veteran each month throughout the school year, Koger said.
"If they hear it from a primary source, they're going to remember it a lot more than if they just read it in a book," she said. "They'll have a personal connection with the person and with the history. Living at Fort Benning, I think it's important ... that they have an appreciation for what those Soldiers have done for them and are still doing today."
Students will interview the veterans and write books about them as class projects. The books will be published in the spring.
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