001[Applause] for [Applause] all [Applause] and [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good morning we'd like to thank everybody for being here today I'm going to ask you stay standing thank you students please rise again if you wouldn't mind standing for the presentation of our Color Guard right h this time I'm going to call students up to do the Pledge of Allegiance followed by our national [Music] anthem I pledge the aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] St [Music] Rock and the of [Applause] the thank you you may be seated thank you yes thank you Mrs mcy and the choir as well as our new sign language club for signing the pl Allegiance we
002were really excited to see that today Veterans if you take a second to turn around and just admire our students today they are wearing red white and blue in honor of you we are so excited for them to be part of this ceremony and for you guys to be here it's a priv an honor to be here with all of you in person today to celebrate such an important holiday it's a pleasure to welcome over 200 veterans here with us even more watching online and of course we can't forget those loved ones that are watching from above as a former teacher and now principal I find it essential for our students to understand why holidays are important and celebrated Veterans Day is a holiday honoring men and women who have served in the United States
003armed forces the branches of the Armed Forces include the Army native na Coast Guard Air Force Marines and most recently the space force it's celebrated annually on November 11th the anniversary of the end of World War I there are 19 and a half million veterans in the United States and more than 9 million veterans are over the age of 65 approximately 2 million veterans are women when people ask you what you plan on being when you get older students some of you may already know some of you may not but one thing is for sure it would be an honor for you to follow following the footsteps of the amazing men and women in front of you today I'd like to recognize a staff member who has served and fought for our country and works
004each and every day at CMS to guarantee our students and staff's technology is working he is guaranteeing that we're online right now and that is Mr Joe right here up [Applause] front thank you for your service another special person I would like to introduce is a man who holds a special place in my heart and that's my dad Dad we wave he served in the army during the Vietnam war each and every veteran here today has stories to share my advice to you is to listen listen to those stories love them while they are still here to share them and thank them for everything they have done to allow us to be here today they are the reasons we wear the red white and blue with pride thank you veteran at this time I'd like
005to call up a few students from each grade to read about the history of Veterans Day mason Megan Ian Drew Brooklyn and Maya please come [Applause] forward a history of Veterans Day cited from the US Department of Veteran Affairs World War I known at the time as the Great War officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28th 1919 in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versa France however fighting ceased 7 months earlier when an Armistice or temporary cessation of hostilities between the Allied Nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th month for that reason November 11th 1918 is generally regarded as the end of the war to end all wars Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11th regardless
006of what day of the week on which it falls this the restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11th not only preserves the historical significance of the date but also helps Focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day a celebration to honor America's Veterans for their patriotism love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good in November 1919 President Wilson proclaimed November 11th as the first commemoration of armist day with the following words to us in America the reflections of arms will be filled with solemn pride and the ISM of those who died in the country service and with gratitude for the victory both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with
007peace and Justice in the councils of the nations in 1926 the legislators of 27 white states have already declared November 11th to be a legal holiday therefore be it result by the Senate the House of Representatives concurring that the president of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on November 11th inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches or other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all their peoples an act approved May 13th 1938 made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday a day to be dedicated to the cause of World Peace and thereafter known as armist day haresis day was primarily a day
008set aside to honor veterans of World War I in 1954 after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers Sailors Marines and Airmen in the nation's history after American forces had fought aggression in Korea the 83rd Congress at the urging at the veteran service organizations amended the act of 1938 by striking out the word armist and inserting its place with the word veterans with the approval of this legislation on June 1st 1954 November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars later that same year on October 8th president Dwight D Eisenhower issued the very first Veterans Day Proclamation which stated in order to ensure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary all veterans all veterans organizations and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common [Applause] purpose
009my an once said how important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and sheroes when thinking about wars no one knows how much Veterans sacrific for us all veterans should be honored especially on November 11th they put their lives on hold for our country's problems we wish them peace in the war and after thank you for protecting our citizens in our country good morning and welcome to the Veterans Day program at cm M today we would like to introduce our guest speaker this morning Dustin Ral Dustin enlisted in the Army Reserves when he was a senior Columbia High School Dustin graduated from Columbia High School in 2002 he was a member of the Army Reserves in Beville he did his basic training and job skills training forland Wood in Missouri in 2004
010dtin was caught up to the 724th unit in Bartonville Illinois he deployed with this unit to Iraq in February as an army specialist he drove and protected the many Convoy units that helped provide Fuel and goods to civilans and soldiers it was a part of the operation Iraq Freedom Dustin and his unit returned to the US in February of 2005 Dustin is more widely known as the founder of songs for soldiers the benefit concert that helps enrich lives of combat veterans and their families who have limited resources $1.13 million have been spent on combat veterans sing it s for soldiers have began is our dad who we love and are very proud of please give a round of applause for our dad I need this stool as well as you can tell those are my
011children and we're very small people uh it's an honor to be here um I I get the privilege to tell my story quite often and usually I don't really get nervous but I always do feel nervous every uh time it's a veteran Day program because as you guys know there's a lot of veterans on the floor here and each one of them definitely have really cool stories really cool uh history of when they serve how they served where they served so to be the one Speaking today I I hope I do a good enough job on behalf of everyone down here because each one of these guys and girls definitely deserves a chance to to do this and tell their story um but uh uh your principal did a good job of throwing out some
012stats earlier are there any kids in the crowd that honestly think they might join the military that's a lot of kids that's a lot of kids one cool thing about our military is that it's an all volunteer service right so less than 0.0004% of our 335 million person population in America are currently in the military that is a small small fraction so not many of us have to do this right and then out of everyone that's living in America 7% that is it only 7% is Veterans and I think that is a super cool stat so if you guys ever choose to do that just know that you're going to be a part of a very very uh elite team and a very very small team and it's something that you can be proud of
013you know the rest of your life I I can I swear to you you'll feel that the rest of your life um I'll just give a quick story I got 10 minutes so I got to kind of bundle it up but um as my kid said um I went to Columbia I'm born and raised from here in Columbia I graduated Columbia Middle School in 1998 at the old school which is now Eagle View uh went to high school and joined the military uh in June 2001 uh as as my kid said I I joined as an army reservist do you guys know what an army reservist is okay an army reservist is somebody that doesn't join full-time but you go one time a month you train tce in the summer but if something happens or
014if there's a war you can be called up onto active duty and so when I joined in June 2001 um it was pretty peaceful and I was a junior in high school uh and so I still had my senior year to finish um what happened in September 2001 911 right okay the taxs that in New York City in Washington DC happened so right after I got out of uh High School within a few days literally I think a few days I left for basic training uh as Charlie said I went to Fort leonardwood did all my training down there um and my first job in the military was just a basic truck driver um didn't score very high on my test so I had to take what they would give me and uh but I
015found that truck driving actually led to a lot of good things later in life so um uh got back and I was in the reserve so I didn't have to go on active duty but then um when we had the wars in Iraq I did get deployed so I ended up going on active duty and went over to Iraq in 2004 uh I was with the 72 fourth out of bartville Illinois and our job in Iraq was to escort fuel convoys do you guys know what a convoy is a large line of trucks right okay so as you can imagine in a country like Iraq where there's things happening fuel has to go from Camp to Camp to camp and in a country uh where you're currently fighting you can't just send fuel trucks down
016the road can you nope so anyways a bunch of uh soldiers had to escort the fuel convoys right so we would put like a a gun truck every four fuel convoys just to protect them in case we got attacked by some insurgents and then we would just fight our way out and try to get through it all safely um unfortunately uh I could talk for an hour about my year in Iraq but my unit did sustain pretty bad losses um unfortunately we were a part of the worst attack on a Supply Convoy in either the Iraq or Afghanistan Wars uh on April 9th 2004 um after some bad Intel we drove our cont down the wrong route we were supposed to go to Baghdad International Airport in Iraq and there was two ways to get
017there and unfortunately we were told to go the wrong way so we ended up driving our fuel Convoy uh down the middle of a big offensive operation between our US Army and like our tanks and we're fighting 300 insurgents so we drove right in the middle of that and unfortunately got completely annihilated to be frank um there was 26 vehicles in that Convoy I was uh the eighth vehicle and I was only one out of six vehicles to make it through the 3M long Kill Zone so when it was all said and done uh two of my friends were killed and uh six American civilian field truck drivers were killed and then my uh my buddy Matt M had been taken P have you guys ever heard of of what a p is P stands
018for prisoner of war is that rainel there's been several of them so anyways Matt was taking p and he had become the first P of the Iraq War and unfortunately um when we returned a year later in 2005 they did not find Matt remains till 2008 so he from Cincinnati and anytime I get a chance to talk about anybody I make sure we mention his name because uh you know he was such a a rare case and such a good dude and um I just like to pay homage to him any chance I get so anyways that was early in our tour I had about eight or nine months left I think to in Iraq so we just kept escorting fuel convoys um went through quite a bit more but obviously um we didn't lose
019anymore had some more wounded uh I made it through I'm okay and um I got to come home to a wonderful town of Columbia right you guys all agree a pretty good place to [Applause] live and so it was easy for me cuz I came home to two really great parents who told me exactly what to do and that was get to work immediately don't get lazy don't sit on your butt and that's exactly what I did and so when I came home I got a good job I bought a house I had all these cool things going for me I'm a musician I played in my band a lot life was good um as I was home for a few years I started kind of dealing with some stuff personally that uh from from
020the war that you know it's a thing called um survivors guilt I'm sure some of these veterans have felt it um it's probably the worst thing uh uh probably the best thing to suffer from after uh a tour of combat but um as we were home I started reconnecting with friends because Facebook was invented right so I started reconnecting with a bunch of my Army friends uh and and seeing where they were around the country and I had realized oh my gosh not everybody came back to what I came back to a lot of them couldn't find jobs because we were in the middle of a huge financial crash in 2008 and a lot of them were doing additional appointments to Afghanistan Iraq just to have a job not necessarily that they wanted to do
021that again but it was a chance for them to go make some money for a year as well and uh unfortunately we lost another friend a few years later um who took his own life because he was struggling with what he was dealing with from the war and his personal life and that was when I really started paying close attention to what a lot of veterans other than what I've experienced were going through and a lot of them were coming home to Broken families and and no jobs and and bad communities right and so as a musician I kind of came up with this idea to what if we do a small concert right and we'll take all the money and we'll try to figure out how to help some combat veterans and my original
022idea was to just do the concert and then give them money to an organization to do all that work and then I decided well I kind of want all the money to go to actually help in the combat veterans right so I started in 2013 have you guys ever heard of a cool concert in town called songs for soldiers yeah have you ever been to it yeah you're probably all the ones running around playing football by adiss that we got babies is that you guys just joking I'm glad you guys can come but uh so yeah that's what I did in 2013 I decided to start my own charity called songs for soldiers I have a huge group of volunteers locally that help me do this thing all year and we're still volunteers and the
023original goal was to do a small concert and help four combat veterans a year hence the name right uh and now we just got done doing our 10th year in 2023 this past September up in the park with uh a huge concert and we raised $290,000 and send songs for soldiers like I said thank you the original goal was four combat veterans a year but I'm super happy on you know on behalf of our great community and all people that come to the show and sponsors and volunteers especially we've now helped almost 900 combat veterans in their families we spent almost $1.2 million and we're all still volunteers pretty cool huh that is simply because you guys come to the [Music] [Applause] show the last thing I kind of want to say is um uh
024and I'm saying this on my own not every veteran has to feel this way or has to agree with me but but you know anyone in this room have people they don't like here maybe or somebody that gets on their nerves in school or a teacher they're may be mad at or their parents even adults are raising their hand that's better we feel the same way right there's people that get under our skin and make us mad well one thing that I hope still comes true for me in my life uh and I've seen it happen on really good news specials and and stuff on TV uh I've seen really cool sto stories happen of World War II veterans and even Vietnam veterans Korean War veterans way later in life flying to Japan or flying
025to Germany or flying to Korea or flying to Vietnam or they come here and they end up meeting people that they fought against way later in life way after life has happened way after you raise your families I hope I hope I hope that when I'm older uh the the country of Iraq is in a place that I can do the same thing because it's taken me 20 years to get to this point but when I got home from the war like when somebody takes something from me to school you're mad right away right you're super mad and you just want to like you know go up and say something to them or yell at them or uh then you go to the principal's office because you get a fight right so you're super mad
026your emotions got the best of you but then what happens if you just give it like one day are you as mad at that person anymore yes okay what about one week you feel a little better after a week when I got home from the war I had a lot of bitterness inside me um you know I lost two friends one was taking p and it's taken me a long time to get to this point but what I have come to realize in 20 years time almost 20 years is that the the guys I was fighting against were fighting in their country and fighting against me they were getting paid to fight me and I was getting paid to fight them and I was there on behalf of our country fighting them and I'm willing
027to bet now 20 years later a lot of them have 11 or 12y old 13y old kids 9-year-old kids and that was just a part of our life that we got mixed up together but we're really the same because 99.9% of times on a daily basis in Iraq the Iraqi people were super great people super nice people people just like us just want to take care of their families right and I hope that I get the opportunity to meet some folks that I fought against because I think that would be the ultimate way to put a bow on something terrible and to chalk it up as a good experience and learning from and learning to forgive people for things and my message to you guys is if veterans that go through something like having to
028fight others and kill others can get around that to find common ground with they with those people that they did that with don't you think we can get around somebody stealing our lunch or our book bag don't you think a veterans can let something that major go we can let all this stupid stuff go that we have happening to us every day wouldn't you guys agree so my point is when you're feeling mad do what a veteran does take some time chill out and make the right decision okay and don't be as mad as as you think you are it's just emotion it's just in the moment and um that's all I got to say that's what I like to tell kids because I think it's something you guys need to hear and uh again
029on behalf of all these veterans on the floor like I'm just super lucky to be able to talk any one of these guys and girls could take a microphone and do this but um thank you so much for letting me speak to you uh thank you for the good introductions twins um I should say that Veterans Day is also my twins 13th birthday I'm glad we have a national holiday on on their behalf but uh enjoy your day off kids it's what you're supposed to have fun but just know why you're off school on that day you understand thank you guys for having [Music] me is that all right thank you Dustin at this time I'm going to ask our next group of students that created their own poems short essays or thank yous for
030vets Charlotte Dakota Henry attakus Ireland Elena Braden Addison Colin Ella Hubert and [Applause] Malachi for dear US military troops November 11th is celebrated to Mark the end of World War I and to honor all of our veterans we celebrate the courage and bravery these men and women have to protect our country as conflicts continue so does the courage and bravery of our military I would like to thank all the veterans today for your service it has improved America by giving us our freedom and many opportunities no matter what branch you participated in you are braver than a lot of US citizens you left your families to protect our country you also risked your life for us we appreciate the sacrifices you have made sincerely Charlotte Wheatley my veteran poem is V is for very brave
031for your service e is for every Soldier is respected T is for talented For All You've Done e is for Extraordinary knives for what you've done R is for remembered for your sacrifice a is for awesome for fighting for my freedom n is for I will never forget you dear veterans I wrote this donor all the soldiers who left their families and friends to go serve our country I probably never know the suffering and sacrifices that you made I do know that some of you come home with scars and hard memories or don't even come home at all the only thing that you veterans need to know is that you matter we as a community need to remember the courage bravery and protection that you provided us and you showed us to never stop fighting
032and to never stop looking for the light hidden in the dark thank you for for protecting our country homes and life thank you for serving the United States of America as we all know Veterans Day is celebrated on the on November 11th every year but many people don't know the original name the original name was armest State the year it went into effect and became an official holiday was 1938 in 1954 the the name was changed from armac day to Veterans Day people get Veterans Day me Memorial Day mixed up so let me clear things up Memorial Day is the day of year celebrating and thanking people who died serving our country Veterans Day is the Day celebrating the veterans who are still alive believe it or not most people who fought for our country
033to keep us safe aren't really recognized enough so say thank you to people who fought for our country who are now living a normal life also say thank you to active Personnel in the military [Applause] why did you serve was it fun did anyone in your family serve were you honored at all what wars were you in what did you do in Wars why did you pick the branch you served in did it bring you pain or sorrow to the world you are a person but to us you are a hero Veterans Day is a crucial day Veterans Day is an opportunity to publicly commemorate the contributions of veterans and to show appreciation towards them we can show appreciation towards veterans by celebrating we can celebrate by sending a card or video getting children involved
034or visiting a state park or Museum I have two people in my family that were veterans both of my great-grandfathers fought in the Vietnam on War veterans sacrificed everything including family homes and Friends soldiers didn't go to war to end the war they also fought for our freedom of speech in a way veterans are like the parents of our country for example most parents would risk their lives for their children and likewise our veterans were willing to sacrifice their lives for us our parents didn't want to fight they still took care of us a third similarity ity between parents and Veterans is their sense of Pride our veterans were so proud of our country and loved it so much that they treated like it was their child they wanted to represent it and be a
035role model for American citizens the veterans from the wars like World War I and World War II the Korean War and the Vietnam War aren't getting any younger our parents aren't either we all want to take care of our parents when they need it so why shouldn't we do the same for our veterans veterans are important to America for many reasons provided veterans should always be respected no matter their condition if you see a veteran today say something kind to them like thank you hello my name is Bren this is my Veterans Day dear veterans on Veterans Day we honor you who sacrificed your life to protect us and keep us safe we thank those of you that answered the eer Mery calls we love you guys with all our hearts we always will without
036you most of us won't be here thank you to all the men and wom that sacrific your hearts to go out to the battlefield all the soldiers young young and old scared for your lives you still went out there to fight some may have never returned home and some may have returned home with some injuries no matter what we still honor you for what you did to protect us and keep us safe I may not know your name but I thank you for your service we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts thank you for your [Applause] service hi I'm Addie and on Veterans Day we honor all who answer to a service call soldiers young and soldiers old fought for freedom Brave and Bold some have lived While others died and all
037of them deserve our pride we're proud of all the soldiers who kept thinking of red white and blue they fought for us in all of our rights they fought through many days and nights though may not know each name we thank all veterans just the same thank [Applause] you when you stepped up to apply you didn't think twice we thank you so much for your sacrifice Brave courageous and Alive your family couldn't wait for you to arrive some are glistening but some are missing fighting for Liberty we love you to [Applause] Infinity thank you for your service but what what does that really mean we say this because it sounds respectful we say this because it sounds right we say this because it's what we've learned to do but when we say this do we
038truly know the meaning behind it thank you for your service is acknowledging the fact that so many men and women risk their lives for the sake of our country thank you for your service is knowing that without these Valiant people we wouldn't have the privilege to be safe and sound in the comfort of our homes thank you for your services understanding that when these people returned home their job was not done now thank you for your [Applause] service fighting to the top of the hill a flag in hand Fallen brothers and comrades gone but still United you stand at the top of the hill he plants his flag flag looking to a beam of Hope far away he knows what he's doing is right he chose to fight every day all because the sacrifice he
039made it's worth it however every minute every hour assisting those with no power to the choice you made our respect is had I command your courage for making families [Applause] glad blood and war is what you saw now I give you my Everlasting respect and a I know that you were able to see today but at what price did you have to pay I will stand up when I see you for all that you have been through I will appreciate my freedom forever because of your ever my respect is forever given sincerely Malachi [Applause] [Music] bass at this time Mr Janie is going to announce the Armed Forces Medley that we going to play when your branch is as said can you please rise if you're able the United States Army please [Applause] [Music] stand
040[Music] 2 the United States [Applause] name [Music] the United [Music] star [Applause] [Music] my the United States Air [Applause] [Music] Force [Music] and the United States Marine [Applause] [Music] Corp [Music] to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we'd like to thank thank the staff and students who work extremely hard to make this wonderful celebration today we'd like to express a special thank you to the CMS choir the sign language Club the Columbia High School junior Roc and our guest speaker Dustin Ralph if you did not get a chance to get your picture please do so before you go we will need all cars to leave the parking lot in back because we do have lunch recess and that is where the kids play and we do not want them to climb on your cars uh but veterans
041again thank you so much for everything you do from the bottom of the hearts we really appreciate you and the opportunity that you gave us to be here today to honor you um you are true heroes enjoy your day on Saturday again everyone please give another round of applause for everyone that did something today hey