Veterans, students swap stories over breakfast

Veterans from all branches of the military gathered at Sherrills Ford Elementary on Tuesday morning for a homemade breakfast with a handful of students at the school.

"We wanted to honor the veterans," said Sydney Hall, co-president of the school's student council, which hosted the event. "We let everyone in the community know by sending flyers home with the kids."

About 50 veterans, many of whom were related to students at the school, showed up. Some attended Sherrills Ford Elementary when students could still attend through 12th grade.

Emilio Torres, the other co-president for the student council, called the veterans "ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things."

Richard Lynch, who served in the Air Force Strategic Air Command from 1953 to 1957, was one of them.

"A friend said he knew my name was on the list to be drafted to Korea," Lynch said. "I signed up for the Air Force because I figured that would be better than being drafted into the Army."

He went to school from noon to 6 p.m. for 54 weeks, training to do countermeasures and radar reconnaissance aboard a B-36 peacemaker bomber.

"I was in school more hours training for it than I was during four years of classroom instruction in college," Lynch said. "But those planes were great. Wingtip to wingtip, it would cover a football field."

After serving in the Air Force, Lynch used the GI Bill to earn his liberal arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ken Reavis also enlisted in the military, joining the Marines in 1966.

"A few uncles were in the Marines, and they didn't discourage me from it. I didn't think it could be that bad," he said. "It was something to do. My brother enlisted in the Navy at the same time, and I figured I would one-up him."

Reavis served in the Marines until 1970. Although his brother was sent to Vietnam twice, Reavis spent his time serving in California.

"Two weeks before I was to get out, I got orders to go to Vietnam, but it was too late then," he said. "I was a sergeant at the time, an E-5, and I could refuse one set of orders. I refused those."

Reavis, who has worked in construction since leaving the military, came to Sherrills Ford Elementary's event on Tuesday from Yancey County, where he lives, because his grandson asked him.

Tom Bone came with his daughter, Jodi Bone-Hudson, to be with his granddaughter. Tara is in second grade at Sherrills Ford Elementary. She stuck close to her grandfather during the Veterans Day celebration, leaving only to get breakfast.

Bone began serving in the Army in the 1950s, retiring in 1976. Although he served in Vietnam for two years, he prefers to talk about his time serving in the Honor Guard Company at Arlington National Cemetery.

To be in the Honor Guard Company, soldiers must volunteer for the assignment, then try out and be selected.

"There are different teams," Bone said. "Each team worked 24 hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. Then you had two days off before you returned."

When he served, soldiers worked on four-man teams with a relief commander. Each one would guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for an hour at a time before the changing of the guard. Now, there are more people on a team.

Bone-Hudson remembers watching her father at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"I sat on the steps at Arlington and watched my dad go back and forth in his sunglasses, and I tried to get his attention, but he wouldn't budge," she said, adding that she was in first grade at the time.

Bone-Hudson treasures a photo of her dad handing a wreath to President John F. Kennedy to place on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Bone also served in Germany while in the military.

"It was a good life. I enjoyed serving," he said.