Trinity Lutheran High School pays tribute to veterans

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Trinity Lutheran High School did not want to cancel its Veterans Day program this year.

The message is just too important for students to miss, said Principal Clayton Darlage.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, students, faculty and families gathered in the school’s gymnasium Wednesday morning to recognize, honor, remember and thank veterans for the sacrifices they have made for their country.

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“As we started to discuss our program for this day and if we were going to be able to host this particular ceremony with the COVID restrictions and the COVID challenges, we never really wavered from wanting to,” Darlage said.

Even though attendance was down noticeably from past years, several veterans from the community sat in the bleachers and took part in the ceremony.

“We knew the importance of what you have all done as veterans and the freedoms that your efforts and your service has afforded us in this wonderful country,” Darlage said. “So we never wanted to falter from being able to get together and honor you for those things that you sacrificed for many, many days of your lives.”

The program, for the most part, was led by students.

Student Council President Bailey Cain spoke about the origin of Veterans Day, which began as the first commemoration of Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson on Nov. 11, 1919.

“We are here today to continue that tradition of giving thanks to the men and women who have defended our nation with honor, courage and loyalty,” she said.

After the presentation of the flag and singing of the national anthem, student council members provided an in-depth look at the Pledge of Allegiance and what the well-known words actually mean.

“The Pledge of Allegiance spans just 31 words,” said junior class representative Addison Bumbleburg. “We learned them as kids and committed them to memory, often with little regard for their significance.”

But now that they are older, the students realize the value and importance of the words they recite each morning.

“We are the benefactors and beneficiaries of democracy,” she said. “We are liberated, prosperous and blessed, and we owe it all to the sovereign God, to our American citizenship and in part to these 31 words.”

Kayla Goecker said in reciting the pledge, people are making a promise.

“… to be faithful to the ideals of our country,” she said. “Those ideals have been expressed and defended since our nation’s birth in 1776.”

Conner Sims said the 50 states are joined together in a common bond to fulfill the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

“That bond is codified in the Constitution, which provides safeguards of liberty, justice and civil rights and establishes America as a federal republic,” he said.

Ella Christopher said the United States stands apart from other nations.

“One of the worthy principles that bond Americans together is our loyalty to the way we govern ourselves — as a republic,” she said.

But government does not give the people freedom, Emma Myers said.

“Our freedom ultimately comes from God, and our government was established to secure that God-given freedom,” she said.

By being indivisible, Sarah Lemming said Americans are pledging to stay together as a country.

“Even when threatened or when we disagree,” she said.

And with the final words of the Pledge of Allegiance, “With liberty and justice for all,” people are committing themselves to freedom, Mya Lindroth said.

“We commit ourselves to such liberties as the freedom to worship, freedom to assemble and freedom to speak,” she said. “We also commit ourselves to justice, which means being fair and right and defending the powerless.”

Samantha Enzinger said the values of freedom and justice expressed in the pledge continue to endure in America.

“By reciting the pledge, we remind ourselves of our commitment to them,” she said.

This year’s keynote speaker was U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Rich Hougesen, who has served in the army for 28 years. He volunteered for two combat tours in Iraq as a front line field medic and a medical logistics person.

From August 2005 to October 2006, Hougesen served with the 738th Area Support Medical Company and was assigned as the medical adviser to Iraq’s former president, Saddam Hussein, during his trial. It was Hougesen’s first deployment.

He had to leave his wife and three young sons at home.

Hougesen used his time to get to know Hussein in a way very few people were allowed to. He and three Christian doctors witnessed to the former world leader.

“The irony of God putting me in the Middle East in a city named Babylon, where David fought for his religious freedom, to share my faith with a world leader that had killed thousands, I was truly humbled and it was mind-blowing for what God had in store for me,” he said.

That duty earned Hougesen a Bronze Star.

In 2008-09, he served in Ballad, Iraq, and in 2013, he became a U.S. civilian contractor in Afghanistan. Beginning in 2019 up until this year, he served in Kuwait.

He currently is working as the civilian health readiness coordinator for the 310th Expeditionary Support Command at Fort Benjamin Harrison for the U.S. Army Reserve and as the G3 operations sergeant major for the 3rd Medical Command Deployment Support.

Hougesen spoke of the core values by which U.S. soldiers serve their country and live their lives. Those values are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

“This nation owes a great debt to its veterans whose service to the nation spans every decade, every year, every day of our country’s existence,” he said. “Through untold courage and sacrifice, American veterans have secured liberty from which the founding fathers sought to establish here in the world.”

The school also paid tribute to local veterans through a slideshow featuring around 60 submitted photos from Trinity students and staff of family who served in the military.

“Our service members and veterans model the service and leadership at the heart of Trinity’s mission, and it is fitting that we can come together to honor them as one of our great blessings,” Bumbleburg said.

The ceremony concluded with the playing of “Taps” and a 2-minute moment of silence.

“The 2-minute silence started on the first Armistice Day service to reflect on the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice to secure and defend freedom,” Cain said. “The first minute was intended to honor those who lost their lives in service to their country. The second minute was meant to reflect on the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children to whom their fallen soldier did not return.”

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