“Welcome home” is a term used for greeting family or members of the house back to their residence. A sort warm greeting, many just use it as an unremarkable phrase to acknowledge the person’s presence, but for a veteran returning from their deployment, it is more than just this simple phrase. It is recognizing their accomplishments while deployed as well as the many sacrifices they made to serve the country and its people. It is a courtesy among veterans as they consider it the proper way of acknowledging the great blessing of a soldier coming home.

On Veterans Day, Frederick High School were one of these groups to be able to greet and learn of such courtesy within the veteran community. All of Frederick High School students and staff had the chance of being able to meet seven different veterans, discovering each and every single one’s backstory as they remembered their past serving for the United States of America. From coming from Iraq to all the way back in serving in the Vietnam war, each veteran had their own set of stories and experiences that they shared between all of us, giving us a picture of how it was like to be drafted or to volunteer into such feat. ​​

Each veteran shared their own specific background and story when it all came to serving the country. Two were on the medical aspect, Sean Selters being a field medic while Jeff Peters was an optometrist, both being in the battle supporting their fellow soldiers, caring for them and tending to their wounds. Another two had served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war, with Ed Aitkin being in a communication group installing radios, while Dennis Seitz served in the Infantry, “walking around looking for the bad guys.” We were also able to meet with Greg Goettsch and Dwayne Windisch who served with the Navy as a Mechanist and an Air Traffic Control Radar Technician both on their own sets of ships.
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Not only were they gracious about sharing their past as many of them find it hard to do so, but they also were accepting of the questions asked to them, answering them with honesty, really connecting to their audience with such replies. They explained their favorite areas they’ve been in during deployment as well as answering what their fondest memory was when they were serving the country and more, each veteran was more than accepting of the student’s remarks participated as much as they could to inform them. During answering each question, there was one that was brought up that stood out from the others.

Each veteran was asked if they would serve the country once more. Surprisingly each stated they would be more than happy to serve in the military and do it all over again, just to protect and serve their country, showing us how grateful we should be of such individuals as they put our safety and live above everything else. So Frederick High School and The Frederick Scout with respect, honor, and gratitude, say thank you for everything that you have done for us and welcome home.