Mike Wolanin | The Republic CSA New Tech students hold their hands over their hearts during the playing of the national anthem for a Veterans Day presentation at CSA New Tech in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Nov. 11, 2024.
Landon Jeffers, a junior, said he couldn’t imagine what it was like to be his age and get sent off to war, not knowing if he would return.
Several veterans sitting before him in the audience at CSA New Tech on Monday afternoon knew what that was like.
Through interviews conducted by his fellow classmates, they all gained further appreciation for the sacrifices service members have made, students said.
Some of the veterans came from their families, others may have been complete strangers when they first started work on the class project which culminated in Monday’s ceremony.
It was CSA New Tech’s third annual Veteran’s Day program where students interviewed veterans for an assignment and discussed the information they had gathered.
The interviews are for the “American Heritage Course” at New Tech, taught by Hope Alexander and Joe Steele. The course is a combination of U.S. History with English 11, so the instructors work to teach history through English assignments.
Steele teaches the English component of the course. He assigned students the book “They Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien.
“It’s a gorgeous book that allows them an insight into veterans and then they take that information and apply it to the interview questions,” according to Steele.
Alexander focused on teaching students about the various conflicts the United States has been involved in. Students learn about both World Wars, but highlight conflicts including the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s to provide them more of a foundation of information about the wars the interview subjects were involved in.
“We focus on those so our students have real-world experience with the content that they’re studying, and then by having to honor them and makes these presentations, the kids are immersed in the process,” Steele said.
For Jeffers, the experience drove home what he was learning in class, he said.
“It’s a bit more personal and then they can connect to you on a more spiritual level,” Jeffers said of the experience. “It makes it go from more of a statistic of this many people died, to this happened to me personally and I was impacted— my family was terrified.”
“I know my mom’s terrified for when I’m going to go off to college, I couldn’t imagine how they were feeling when someone my age was going off (to war),” Jeffers said.
During the program, students stood before a podium and recounted details of each veteran’s service, with many of them sitting in the audience receiving grateful applause.
But before that, Bob Hempstead, who spent 30 years combined in the United States Marine Corps and U.S. Army, delivered a keynote address.
He emphasized that no matter the reasons for each person’s service attending the program, they all had one thing in common — someone they cared for asked them to be there.
Hempstead, who also gave remarks during the event two years ago, meditated about the word “unconditional” and how that is reflected in the lives of the nation’s veterans.
“They care more for you than anything you could ever imagine. It’s the unconditional love you don’t even know about yet,” Hempstead said. “No matter how sore they are, how their ears ring, or (how) their body’s just shot — they would still fight for you.”
The ceremony concluded with a performance of “Taps,” with the veterans springing to their feet during the rendition.
“Don’t ever forget that we’re veterans, but we’re much, much more,” Hempstead said.
