TRENTON, Ga. — Spc. Trae McCown stood in his former high school Tuesday, trying to explain what it’s like to be a soldier.
He told the Dade County high schoolers that boot camp was tough but doable, that soldiers get time off during training and that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
His former health sciences teacher Lori Wallin stood by proudly as Spc. McCown answered students’ questions. Some were serious, some not.
Senior Kelsey Hall asked the specialist if they carried grenades and if he’d ever thrown one. He had.
“Awesome, I’ve always wanted to throw a grenade,” Ms. Hall said.
Spc. McCown and other veterans spent Tuesday morning at Dade County High School in the fourth year of “Soldiers in the Classroom,” an American Legion Post 106 program designed to introduce veterans to students and share information about military life.
Vietnam veteran and post Senior Vice Commander Bill Lockhart said he helped organize the event with a former high school principal and other veterans more than six years ago when he realized students knew very little about the military.
“We are handicapped. We don’t have a military base or an ROTC program,” Cmdr. Lockhart said.
He has worked with children as a coach before, but four years ago, the first time he stood in front of a class to share his military experiences, his speech plan instantly dissolved.
“You get there and you’ve got all these kids in their little desks staring at you,” he said.
But after a brief introduction, the questions took care of the rest, he said.
On Tuesday, Dade High students learned about job opportunities and travel offered by the military.
“Look at that map back there,” former U.S. Navy veteran Charlie Bryant told the students. “I’ve traveled about every ocean on that thing.”
But veterans didn’t sugarcoat some of the more difficult parts of service.
Charlie Flatt, a World War II veteran, told students about how he shot a German man when the man pointed a gun at him. He then went inside a nearby building and found a photo album full of a child’s pictures, from baby photos to those of a young man.
“I watched him as he grew up,” Mr. Flatt said.
He went back outside and looked at the man he’d shot.
“I looked in his face,” he told students. “It wasn’t the clean-shaven face in the photograph ... but I knew it was him.”
Todd South covers courts and the military for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper for three years and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact Todd ...
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