Veteran's Day

Thursday after school I had the privilige of speaking at the Orchid Terrace Retirement Community in South County. It was a long day at school and quite frankly I wasn't really in the mood to speak, but when I started meeting the residents, I had no regrets. I gave my speech about Harold Hetzler, a WWII pilot that lost his life in that war, then gave my slideshow presentation about my research and journey into Harold's life. They were a really great audience and seemed to be really moved by the presentation. They also had lots of good questions. It was a really nice experience for me and I would love to speak to them again. I enjoyed meeting with two veterans, one named Earl (in the hat in front) who was in the Battle of the Bulge and one named Harold (In yellow in the back) who was a tank driver under General Patton. Sarah also spoke with a lady who was from Germany and had quite a conversation about their homeland and Sarah learned a lot about how bad it was in Germany during the war from her. On a side note, I was surprised to see one of the ladies I met, who was 91, going on facebook as we left the common room! This was all a profound experience for me and the residents were so moved by my presentation at the sad points, that I myself teared up a bit during the talk.