Plans underway for more classroom presentations by veterans

Palm Coast Observer
News

Flagler County’s Veterans in the Classroom program will begin again this coming August, and Flagler hopes to do more presentations.

There used to be 60 or so class presentations in the months leading up to Memorial Day, but that dropped to 21 this past year — and none at Flagler Palm Coast High School, said Billy Jones, a member of the county’s Veterans Advisory Council, at the council’s June 3 meeting. A total of 80 or 90 a year, including the time periods preceding Veterans Day and Memorial Day, is ideal, he said.

The presentations, Jones said, “are trying to tell them (students) what Memorial Day is, why we have Memorial Day.”

He noted that no younger veterans have volunteered, and not everyone who does volunteer is accepted.

“There are certain parameters I look for in a speaker,” Jones said.

Flagler County Veterans Services Officer David Lydon said the program wants to make sure its speakers aren’t inclined to be drawn into battlefield discussions that are inappropriate for children.

“Some people just can’t avoid talking about it,” he said. “Some of them (children) ask those questions; you have to find a sophisticated way of getting around that topic.”

Lydon also noted that the Army National Guard is changing its recruiting logo, swapping out the image of a Revolutionary War minuteman with a rifle in favor of a new logo that contains a gold star and the words “Army National Guard.” in gold and white.

“That’s how sensitive the schools are to some of these things,” he said.

The logo change has prompted criticism from people who believe it’s motivated by the desire to shield students from the sight of the minuteman’s rifle or comply with school policies barring any images of firearms; Army National Guard officials have said the change was designed to make the Army National Guard logo look more like the Army logo. (The minuteman still remains on the National Guard's seal.)

In other business at the VAC meeting, veterans organizations have been placing flags in cemeteries, but have had a difficult time at the Masonic Cemetery, where many graves lack markers that indicate whether the interred is a veteran.

“I’ve gotten concerned citizens that call about it, and the Espanola Masonic Lodge said they’re working on it,” Lydon said.