My father in law (a WWII vet) and a friend of ours (Korean war vet) came to my daughter's class for Veteran's Day. The kids gave a brief presentation, then the men told a little about their service, and the kids asked questions. At the end, the class presented them with thank you cards and practiced shaking hands.
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Thanking the Vets
I learned some interesting things, like how the Navy pants can be quickly taken off in the water and used to trap air and become a flotation device. And that the collar on the back of their shirts is a design holdover from long ago, when the men would take their long hair and harden it into a ball with tar, and in hand to hand combat would swing their head and use the hardened hair ball as a weapon. The collar kept the tar off the blouse. The kids were, of course, FASCINATED with this little tidbit of info. Who can blame them?
The most important lesson though, I think, came when one boy asked if fighting in the army was fun. My father in law very quickly and emphatically replied "No."
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