Veterans Honored at Middle School's Memorial Day Assembly

Veterans, city, state and school officials and Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School students gathered in the school auditorium on Friday morning to commemorate Memorial Day and pay tribute to the members of the armed forces who gave their lives in service to their country.

When Principal Tom Brow finished reading the names of the veterans sitting on the stage, the students rose in a rousing one-minute standing ovation. Students also gave a loud ovation when Middlesex Sheriff James DiPaola acknowledged four members of the 182nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based at the Melrose Armory, who will be thrust back into active duty later this year.

"Our thoughts and prayers will be with them and we hope them a speedy and safe return," DiPaola said.

Brow told the students that one of the veterans on stage passed him a note during the assembly that said, "'I have great faith and hope of the youth of Melrose' because of what he's seen so far today. That's a tribute to you."

During his speech, DiPaola told the students he was "blown away" by the assembly.

"This has been one of the finest, most well-run, most well-attended Memorial Day service or any kind of school activity I've ever attended, and I represent not just Melrose, but 54 cities and towns," he said. "I'm going to tell you something: as I travel around this county for years to come, I'm going to hold this Melrose middle school up as the banner of what we're doing in our educational system and that they're getting it right, right here in Melrose."

Having spent almost 20 years in the Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve, DiPaola spoke of the hardship faced by those in the military who leave their home, family and friends for a base on foreign soil where their personal security is always at risk.

"Sadly, I also know that there are those who will never be able to speak proudly of their years of service to their country," he said. "They cannot speak of the pride they felt when wearing the uniform or saluting the colors. They have been forever silenced by the grim realities of war."

Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, said that 118 Massachusetts men and women have lost their lives in war since 2001 and 29,000 Massachusetts veterans have returned home since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. She told students how war had been the backdrop of their young lives ever since Sept. 11, 2001.

"I remember your heart-breaking pictures of when you were in kindergarten and first grade; crayon drawings of planes going into buildings when it was the fall of 2001," Clark said. "One of them, I remember, had little hearts that cascaded down.

"But those who have served our country and those who have died doing so did not do so because they believed in war," she continued. "They believed in peace. They believed in the values that our country is built on: freedom, equality and justice."

One of the veterans in attendance, Irving Smolens, landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. He read to the students "The Great Pinochle Game," written by his batterymate and friend Peter Russo about Russo's experience landing on Utah Beach for the invasion.

Smolens said he recently viewed a documentary about American soldiers that took part in liberating holocaust camps after the end of World War II meeting the camps' survivors, sons and daughters.

"When the documentary ended, I rose from my seat and I told the filmmakers and the audience that in addition to commemorating the anniversary of the day on which the camps with liberated, they should also remember that the liberation of the camps began on D-Day, June 6, 1944," he said. "The prisoners in the camps were all close to death. They could not have survived another two months if the Normandy invasion had failed and their sons and daughters never would have been born."

Mayor Rob Dolan pointed out the diversity of the veterans assembled on the stage.

"You see men in their twenties, and then you see a very handsome gentlemen who's a little more than 20," Dolan said, looking over at former Mayor Jim Milano, 100-years-old and a World War II veteran. "You have men and women who saved the world and fought Adolf Hitler. And they saved humankind from the tyranny and oppression of communism and everything in between."

Dolan said that the veterans all had something in common with the students — that they, too, were once middle school students who faced the same challenges and struggles that students face today. He said that on Memorial Day weekend, however, it's important for the students to put aside their own struggles and empathize with the struggles of veterans and their families, who when they left for war were never sure if they would see each one another again.

"Our struggles are important ... but those are the struggles that we replace our thoughts with today and acknowledge that great sacrifice of the men and women behind me and those whom they represent and can't be here today," Dolan said.

Superintendent Joe Casey told students, after leading a round of applause for Brow's continued organization of the Memorial Day Assembly, that the job of Melrose teachers and school administrators is to educate and help students become people who have values, "like the people behind me.

"You have to have beliefs. You have to have values," he said. "My charge to you is to stay in school, pay attention, work hard and give yourself the knowledge you need to be informed citizens, because that is what we really need today. The people behind me fought and (others) died for us in order to give you the opportunity to make up your own mind, to get a good education, keep our country strong and make it the leader of the free world — 'free' being the operative word."

Eighth grader William Nee told his classmates about a quote from Army National Guard Sgt. Cliff Kazarian, an Iraq veteran who said he has received more thank-yous and pats on the back than ever when people learn he served in wartime, but that one older man told him he didn't appreciate the U.S. fighting in Iraq. Kazarian had told that man he was entitled to his opinion as an American.

"The man that came up to him and told him that he was entitled to his opinion as an American told him that in other parts of the world, people aren't able to speak their opinions or they'll be in trouble," Nee said. "Most of the veterans know that people won't (always) support their cause, but they fight for it anyway because they're fighting for their country."

In addition to speeches given throughout the assembly, students used their musical talents to honor veterans, beginning with the middle school band playing "March of the Armed Forces" and later "Colonial March." Third grader Joey Grieve sang the National Anthem and seventh grader Kyle Lee performed "America" on cello.

Other musical performances included "Traveling Soldier," sung by eighth graders Alyssa Abbott, Natessa Storm, Lilah Drafts-Johnson and Jacqueline Arsenault, who also performed musical interludes during Brow's address, when he listed U.S. casualties war-by-war. The middle school orchestra performed "Land of Liberty" and "God Bless America," while Melrose High School senior and cellist Eli Kaynor performed "Elegie" by Gabriel Faure, accompanied by his sister Lia Kaynor, an MVMMS alumna and BU Academy student, on piano.