Veterans education

Today is the "eleventh day of the eleventh month" and in 1918 it was the end of World War one and then became Veteran's Day. We are supposed to thank a Vet for our freedom and I did. I am also a Vet and spent some time at my fifth-graders school today lunching and answering questions that had more to do with "Call of Duty" than anything historical. Not that I'm complaining about that, history comes alive only if one can relate to it. If the children can relate to a historical , though violent, video game then so be it. They had some pretty good questions.

There were many veterans at the school today and though I was probably not the youngest, I was certainly closer to the students age then I was to the oldest veterans present. Those guys, the old ones, they are a proud bunch. They have stories, most do, of warfare and survival and heroics. I felt a little embarrassed when asked when did I serve, '86 to '91. Desert Storm? nope, Ft. Hood. Oh.

I did a little better when asked what I did and the kids found out I was a medic. They wanted to know if I ever shot anybody protecting my casualties. I then got points when one child asked the group of us if anyone ever shot an RPG. I had and said so, then I became a serious contender. The old guys were a little miffed then. They wanted to teach the children about duty, honor, the importance of education. Of course they were talking about their duty, honor, and education not the kid's. The kids wanted to talk about cool shit like guns and jets and those things.

By the end of the day the only real competition I had was with a dude who drove tanks during the Vietnam thing, though he drove them in Germany. That's pretty cool and he even said a couple of things about education, but he didn't beat it in the ground though. I mean, we were at a school. A good school full of kids who, for the most part, want to be there. I had even him beat though because by then the little boys were going down the list of weapons they knew of and asked me what I shot. I shot a lot of different things, one of the perks of being a medic. Medics have to be on the firing range at all times. The AK47 put me over the top. Education, I educated the kids when I pointed out that the AK was,is our enemy's weapon. More questions followed. The long winded, ancient Naval fellow who served though the ENTIRE Vietnam conflict had nothing for that, all he did was watch missiles shoot off the destroyer.

This is what I learned today. Kids have no concept of many things, the simpler the better. I know that Vietnam guys and WWII guys were there and I was training National Guard Medics to go to war. I was in no danger, they lived it. However, they didn't shoot an AK47 or wear a cool red cross on their arm. I did.

So today...I won.