About 20 veterans and the entire Greene County High School student body attended a Veteran’s Day program yesterday at the high school in Jefferson.

Senior Daniel Neal was the emcee and the program started with a recognition of all veterans in the audience along with the singing of the National Anthem.  The band and choir performed different military selections including “Military Escort” and “America The Beautiful”.

Then there was a powerpoint presentation by Landon Braun and he also recited a poem called, “Things That Make A Soldier Great”.  Elvin Thomas was the guest speaker.  He is a veteran, but spoke about his time growing up during the Cold War.

He said that during the Cold War, civilians were used as spotters, looking at the sky to see if Soviet Union aircraft were in the area.  In small towns, such as in Greene County, they were in grain bins looking towards the sky.

He noted that all jet aircraft belong to the military and so everytime you heard a jet plane in the sky, you didn’t know if it was a “friend or foe”.  He mentioned that for the Vietnam War and earlier wars, serving in the military wasn’t an option due to the draft.  However, the draft was abolished in 1972 and the last active draftee just retired from military service last week.

A World War II veteran, retired Sergeant James Bennett says he’s the last surviving WWII veteran in Greene County and was a Prisoner of War for 14 months in Germany.  Bennett told Raccoon Valley Radio what he thought about the student-led program.

“It’s wonderful, it really is, it’s really kind of makes a tears come to your eyes that they think to do that for you.  Freedom is not free, a lot of boys and girls are heroes are still over there.”

Prior to the program, the veterans were treated to a breakfast, served at the high school.