Longs Peak Middle School sixth-grader Damian Vela comes from a family of military veterans, including a great-grandfather who fought in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Vela also goes to a school that offers a daily reminder of the sacrifices made by Americans during every conflict in the 20th Century. A huge mural honoring Longmont war veterans stretches along the wall in the school’s main hallway and greets students each day.
With all that history and heritage surrounding him, Vela does not hesitate when he discloses his future plans. He was further buoyed on Thursday, when several veterans from America’s armed forces filled the school during Longs Peak’s traditional Veterans’ Day celebration.
“It makes me realize what it really means to be in the military,” Vela said, adding he plans to join the Army after high school. “Having all these people here today means a lot. It means a lot to our country.”
Longs Peak traditionally holds a school-wide Veteran’s Day celebration every three years, Principal Sandy Heiser said. The event is to ensure each student at the middle school can talk to military veterans before they move onto high school, she said.
A bad snow storm in 2019 and COVID-19 restrictions last year put the celebration on hold. This year, the school decided to renew the observance of Veteran’s Day with a flourish. “We really wanted to make the day special for everybody,” Heiser said.
Longs Peak students greeted veterans at the door Thursday morning and ushered them into the school’s library along with St. Vrain Valley School District officials for a continental breakfast. Members of the American Legion Post 32 honor guard performed a flag raising in front of the school before joining fifth and sixth graders in an assembly in the school’s gym.
Longs Peak music teachers performed as well as a drumline from Longmont High School. Longs Peak eight graders, meanwhile, had been bussed to downtown Longmont where they witnessed the annual Veteran’s Day parade.
Ralph Bozella — a combat veteran, longtime veteran’s advocate and State Commander for the American Legion’s Department of Colorado — told the students their school’s mural was unveiled in 1995 after being created through an artist in residence program. Former Longs Peak teacher Gary Barnett, who also served in the Army and Navy, helped fashion the mural along with muralist Susan Dailey and art teacher Bruce Bennett.
The mural commemorates three veterans including Paul David Rodriguez, who was a year ahead of Barnett in high school and dropped out of school to fight in Vietnam. He later died in that country. The school also includes a Wall of Heroes which highlights the country’s cultural history, Bozella said.
“Your school has created a tradition of honoring our veterans, you should be proud of that,” Bozella told the students.
Heiser told the students Veteran’s Day is important for her because many in her family served in the military. “For so many of us, Veteran’s Day has special meaning,” Heiser said. “I think about my dad who served in Vietnam, my uncles and grandad who served in World War II, every day,” she said.
Longs Peak custodian Paul Deeter was among those honored Thursday. Deeter served in the Navy in Vietnam on a combat and ammunition ship.
Thursday’s celebration was in stark contrast to how veterans were treated when they returned home from Vietnam, Deeter said. “Nobody ever said thank you to us, when we got back from Vietnam,” he said. “That was not a popular war.”
