By Amy Batista, Special Writer
MONROE — Monroe Township Middle School (MTMS) hosted its 10th annual “Salute To Veterans” Discussion Panel on Oct. 19 for sixth and seventh grade students.
The Monroe Education Foundation funds the program.
”It’s not only to honor our veterans but it is to also for you our students to be educated, understand about the sacrifices that our veterans have made for you, for me and for every American so that is the goal here today,” said Douglas Glassmacher, host of the discussion and Industrial Arts teacher. “I started this program because I realized there was a need to educate our students about the contributions and sacrifices that Veterans have made to our great country.”
The discussion panel included four local veterans ranging from the President of the Monroe Veterans Council, a WWII Battle of the Bulge Veteran who was captured by the Germans and eventually escaped from the POW camp, to a Veteran of Vietnam, and a Veteran of the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars.
Panel member Dan Mann, of Monroe, served in World War II in the US Navy abroad the USS Hancock and is the President of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Monroe.
”Our individual stories are just part of a long history of the United States and its fight to ensure individual liberty, your liberty and your rights,” Mr. Mann said. “So each of us has our own story.”
The other panel members included World War II veteran William Lang of Holmdel, Vietnam veteran Robert Totten of Old Bridge and Monroe Township High School graduate Colin Pascik, a veteran of Afghanistan who lost both legs to an IED while on patrol.
”My story began on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,” Mr. Mann said. “The next day all the students in my school went into the auditorium like you are and we listen to President Roosevelt say that our country had been attacked. I was 15 years old at the time.”
According to Mr. Mann, men were rushing all over the town at that time to Recruiting Stations to join the Armed Forces and there were long lines. He joined the Navy two years later when he turned 17.
Mr. Mann said he was sent to school where he learned about electronics and radar counter measures and was eventually deployed on an aircraft carrier.
”My ship was hit very badly at the battle of Okinawa and we buried 65 men at sea the next day,” Mr. Mann said. “But the point is that we were engaged in a battle to defend your rights and that’s what the battles are all about. And while I was very anxious to get out there and defend the country, the Navy had other ideas and kept sending me to school. The important message for you is that no matter what you do, the more education you get the more valuable you’ll be to yourself and to your country and to your family. So gets as much education and training as you possibly can.”
Mr. Lang of Holmdel served in the US Army during World Word II in Europe and took part in one of the bloodiest battles in the war, the Battle of the Bulge.
”I was in a reconnaissance scout in the 32nd Cavalry in Europe in Luxembourg up on the front line where the trenches were on the other side of the line,” said Mr. Lang.
He was captured on Dec. 17 by a German soldier and became a Prisoner of War (POW) after being found inside a barn.
”A German soldier walked into where I was hiding and must’ve saw my shoe,” Mr. Lang said. “He walked out and came back with five more guys with Tommy Guns and told me ‘Come out American, come out.’”
According to Mr. Lang, the young German soldier put a gun to his head and he pulled the trigger back but he didn’t pull fire.
”An old German soldier told him ‘Don’t shoot him. I’ll take him back with the prisoners.’” Mr. Lang said. “That man saved my life. He was an enemy.”
Mr. Lang shared his experience of what it was like with the students to be a POW – marching through towns with nothing to eat, feet and hands were frozen, placed in unsanitary conditions, and routines of burying the dead until he escaped one day with a few of his “brothers.”
”We did make the American lines,” Mr. Lang said. “We met the infantry outfit coming up in the next town and they looked like angels to us compared to what we went through.”
Colin Pascik, a former student of Applegarth School and MTMS served in the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan.
”In the Spring of 2010 I was sent to Afghanistan,” said Mr. Pascik. “I don’t have much (to tell) compared to all these men seating to my left but mainly lots of walking around deserts sweating profusely, carryings lots of gear, looking for people not in uniform because it was a very different kind of war because we weren’t fighting an actual military now just farmers with guns.”
Mr. Pacik said he was point man and his job was to plan and choose routes to get my patrol around the country safely without anyone stepping on an IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) which is essentially a homemade landmine.
According to Mr. Pascik, his patrol moved south about 10 miles to push the Taliban “out of a major strong hold” and into a bazaar where they were clearing and pulling up the deadly IEDs.
”We pulled up IEDs probably one every 15 feet or so for about two weeks straight just looking for bombs on the ground and occasionally getting engaged by Taliban forces or Al-Qaeda, you really can’t tell,” Mr. Pacik said.
While a patrol base was being built on a hill, Mr. Pascik worked on his next assignment and it was during that routine assignment that things went wrong.
”After we set up patrol my job was to look for a crossing for a river and while looking for this crossing I stepped on an IED, I was injured and taken out of Afghanistan and now I’m here two years later recovered,” Mr. Pascik said as he received a round of applause from the audience.
He then got up to show to the students his “new legs,” prosthetics replacing the legs that were amputated after several surgeries.
Robert Totten of Old Bridge served in the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps in Vietnam.
”People say you want a hero, well there is your hero right there (as he point to Mr. Pascik),” said Mr. Totten. “What he gave up for this country that’s a hero. You don’t hear him up here crying or complaining about it. The rest of us, hey, we did our job. We fought who we were told to fight. We went were we were told to go and through the grace of God were all here. My prayer is that you don’t have to go through that.

