Students "Adopt a soldier"to gain insights into history
By:Emily Craighead
Manville High School students reached out to understand the lives of another generation at the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Adopt a Soldier breakfast for local veterans Jan. 20.
"The fact we’re reaching out to them and saying we want to know your stories … keeps them from becoming just another textbook page," senior Denise DeCamp said.
Denise’s grandfathers, who both fought in World War II, never told her their wartime stories, so Denise was eager to hear from veterans such as Fred Millet of South Bound Brook. Mr. Millet served in the U.S. Army’s 79th Division, 5th Ranger Battalion during World War II.
"We could very well be crosses in Normandy or on Iwo Jima, but we’re here, and we’re willing to share our experiences," Mr. Millet told the students, veterans and community members assembled in the high school cafeteria.
Over muffins and coffee, students listened, and discussed the importance of learning some of life’s lessons from seniors in the community who have been through so much.
Juniors Nastazya Bolek, Katrina DeSantis and Jessica Scalera, who organized the breakfast, said the current war in Iraq feels distant. Reading about war in the newspaper isn’t the same as saying goodbye to friends drafted to fight in a war before they finish high school.
"Maybe (the veterans) could give us a better perspective," Nastazya said.
"Because they were our age when they went into war," Katrina added.
Mr. Millet was among the troops who stormed the Normandy beaches when the Allies invaded France on June 6, 1944 and liberated Paris later that summer. The Allies sustained heavy casualties on D-Day many thousands were killed trying to come ashore on the Normandy beaches and are now buried in vast French cemeteries marked with simple white crosses.
Mr. Millet says his memories of Normandy are of fish. To keep his mind off the red waves washing up onto the beach during the invasion, Mr. Millet, a fisherman, focused on the fish squirming in the sand after being blown out of the water by mines.
That’s the reality Mr. Millet wants younger generations to understand.
"I tell them not to glorify war," he said. "They should think of having peace and solemnity."
With a laugh neither lighthearted nor bitter, Mr. Millet said, "If I had my way I’d take all the ones who started (the war) and throw them all out in front."
Mr. Millet saw the worst of war, but Ron Cavanaugh, chaplain of the Manville VFW Post reminded his business-oriented audience there’s more to the military.
"This is all going to help you and how you get there, help you build management skills, help you mature," said Mr. Cavanaugh, himself a former FBLA member at Ocean County College. "The military is not about war. We are ambassadors … there are a lot of things we do that are not just about war."
FBLA members, as a first step, are becoming community ambassadors.
Nastazya, Katrina and Jessica will take photographs and notes about the veterans’ breakfast and other FBLA community service projects and compile a 30-page report they will present at the FBLA state convention in March.
The continental breakfast was catered by Culinary Creations and the FBLA received grants from Wal-Mart and the Somerset County United Way to fund their service projects including sending phone cards to soldiers in Iraq and planning activities for seniors in the community.

