The deep sorrowing voice of our own speaking veterans echoed through the gymnasium on Thursday, Nov 9. Veterans Day, formally known as Armistice Day, is a national holiday meant for people all over America to honor the brave soldiers who fought for us, whether they returned or not. Veterans Day is Nov 11 and was taken as a celebrated holiday for Glacier Peak on Nov 10. 

Veterans came to Glacier Peak to speak up about what Veterans Day truly represents in our honoring assembly. Tim Long was the second speaker of two veterans who came, and has extensive reasons of how his life was changed in becoming a soldier. “I just retired from the navy after almost 25 and a half years. I was a surface war fair officer which means I drove ships, in a manner of speaking, but those ships are multi mission platforms that provide numerous types of defense for aircraft carriers. I like to call them the navy’s mixed martial arts fighters. I originally joined the Navy because of the ROTC scholarship. It helped me to get an education that my family couldn’t afford. It was initially one of opportunity, but I was thoroughly transformed by my time in the service. When I was younger I used to be a little bit full of myself, mostly head, very little heart. So many leaders that I was fortunate enough to work with or be led by transformed me into a better person. It’s quite an honor [to be here]. There are those moments when you encounter people out in public and it’s a brief, fleeting interaction so the best that anyone feels they have time for is, ‘thank you for your service,’ and I’ve definitely been on the delivering end of that. I’ve learned that when I take time to understand other people’s stories and when I see other people take time to write letters to deployed troops and sailors- I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the heart that the students at Glacier Peak have demonstrated which is cultural here in tradition. Just looking out in the crowd and seeing the earnestness in the eyes of the students, it was truly humbling to be here. I think often times when someone hasn’t served and they encounter a veteran or active duty member they say or truly mean, ‘thank you for your service,’ and when anybody ever says that to me I say- it’s truly been my pleasure. In one instance because I haven’t had it as rough as many of my brothers and sisters have had, but when I get thanked, I say it’s been my pleasure because everything good in my life has come as a result of my military service,” Long said. 

These speakers took time out of their day to teach us what Nov 11 is really for, and they have stories of their own that could be shared in the process. “I served in the military and I had a great time doing it and I wish I could’ve stayed in longer than I did. Everybody I served with and the reason we were doing it- the placed we got to go, the places I got to see, the things we got to do; I got to see the world I never would’ve been able to see before. I was a kid from a small town so the idea of going around the world was amazing for me. I was in Tasmania, Australia, one time and I got invited out to dinner and this family adopted me. The mom was a third grade teacher and the dad owned a resort and they had a little girl who was in third grade. So I woke up in the morning and the daughter she looked at me and goes, ‘he’s awake! he’s awake’ and she was really fascinated, and she said, ‘can you talk?’ and, ‘Oh my god his accents amazing!’ She was just baffled by this and so I got to go to school with her for show and tell. It was an experience I would’ve never had otherwise. To be honest I didn’t really want to do [the assembly] since it’s not really something you want to speak out loud, honestly. Sometimes you just have to  do it. I got out in 2012 and It’s so crazy because it seems like yesterday. Tim was talking about being in high school- even though you get older your mind never really changes so it’s been awhile but I loved it,” James Steele said. 

All student and staff are present at the assembly though it can be difficult for some more connected members to sit through. “My dad served for 30 years in the navy, he was a master chief, and he was in during the Vietnam war and we lived in military bases my whole life until I got into high school. My dad served before I was born two tours of duty and after two more, and so there were times when he was gone- but just the whole idea of growing up on military bases and being around the military; I was telling Mrs. Crowin that there were times when we as kids when we lived in Japan, we would be playing as kids and a plain marked Sedan would drive through the bases and that always meant to us kids that someone was getting a telegram that their dad wasn’t coming home. [The assembly] just brings back memories of that whole life, of living on bases and worrying about my dad never coming home. It’s the same every year, I think it’s really powerful. I don’t think enough Americans appreciate what veterans have done. I think a lot of us get caught up in the politics of government and we take it out on the soldiers when the soldiers are just doing their job. You should never take anything out on a soldier, ever. I remember people calling my dad names and stuff like that. I appreciated [speaking since] it adds value to my experience and my beliefs and such,” Bob Blair said.