By Karen Hall

Editor

Chapel Hill Elementary School students had the opportunity to "put a face with an event" Monday, as they celebrated Veterans Day. In their case, it was many faces, including veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, plus some still in the armed forces.

"The greatest resource we have in our country today is our military," said Principal Dean Delk at the start of the program.

There are over half a million veterans in Tennessee, according to a letter from Gov. Bill Haslam which was read to the students.

Of these veterans, more than 50,000 are women, and Delk invited two of these women to speak.

The first was Meg Barche, who spent a total of 26 years in the armed forces as a nurse. She was a hospital corpsman for the Navy and also served two tours in Iraq with the Marines.

"Luckily we brought a lot of the Marines back with us," Barche said. She told students how she had counted up and found 17 veterans in her immediate family, with a total of 213 years of service to their country.

The second speaker was Judi West, a member of the Navajo nation, who wore her tribal dress for the occasion. West spent six years in the Army as a communication specialist. She told students how Native Americans have served in all branches of the service, including 12,000 who fought in World War I. In World War II, the Navajo nation provided the Code Talkers, who communicated strategic information in their own language, a code the enemy could not break because they had no Navajo speakers of their own.

Rick Roberts, of the Marshall County Veterans Services office was there to accept donations of money raised at Forrest and CHES with their "Quarters for Veterans" program.

"I have the honor of accepting this every year for all the veterans of Marshall County," Roberts said. "It will go in our van fund. We thank you so much for that. Bless your heart."

Delk spent many years in the Tennessee National Guard, and called it, "The best thing that ever happened to me." The microphone was passed around the room so veterans could identify themselves, and tell when they served.

"We appreciate you; we appreciate what you've done," said Delk as the program concluded.