FOR MANY VETS,

THE BEGINNING OF

 WWII CAME BEFORE THE 

END OF HIGH SCHOOL 

 

When 76-year-old Joseph Mularski opened his mail  to find an invitation to his high-school senior

prom and graduation exercises last May, he did a double take. Sixty years had passed since he left Easthampton High to serve in World War II. But there it was in black and white, quite official looking.

 

It all started, I learned, when Debbie Carter, principal of Easthampton High School in Easthampton, Massachusetts, heard Robert McKean, who founded Operation Recognition to honor oft-forgotten World War II veterans, talked about high schools that had held commencement exercises for former students

who went off to war before they could graduate.

 

Debbie's own father was a WWII vet. Why not do this at Easthampton? she thought.

 

She promptly got two social studies teachers, Barry Wilby and Sharon Lapointe, involved. A quick search of school records revealed that 20 former Easthampton students had enlisted or been drafted out of their classes to fight WWII.

 

"On Friday they were in eleventh or twelfth grade; on Monday they were in boot camp," said Wilby.

"We all thought it a shame they never received diplomas or enjoyed their senior prom."

 

With the support of the school superintendent, John Cullinan, they introduced the idea of a veteran's prom and commencement to the students. About 50 of them started meeting weekly to organize a "senior-senior" prom for Thursday, May 25, 2000, and a special graduation ceremony the next day--

both during Memorial Day weekend.

 

I learned about these events thanks to a clipping sent to us by a Guideposts reader (thank you, Marian Collins of Wilbraham).  Immediately I was intrigued. For I,too, was a WWII vet.

 

Though I had received my diploma from Oak Park High School in Illinois, the graduation exercises were brief and austere. It was January 1940, and the Depression was still going. The senior prom wasn't till June. Before too long I was in the Army, so it was especially touching for me to learn about the second chance these vets got to enjoy their high school celebrations.

 

Easthampton High senior Marilyn Lattinville co-chaired the committee that organized the event. "My grandfather was in the Korean War, and I felt very close to these soldiers," she said.

 

Another organizer, high school senior Stephanie Powers, said, "We appreciated that they put aside things they cherished to go fight for this country."

 

Local businesses and fraternal organizations donated $3,000 toward events. With the help of Stan Parsons, a local veterans afairs officerr, the organizers tracked down the 20 Easthampton students who had served

in WWII. Two had died, including one killed in action. One lived in California and couldn't be present for the festivities. Seventeen were able to make it. Each was "adopted" by two students who helped track him down.

 

A general invitation to the "senior-senior" prom was also extended to all local veterans and senior citizens via fliers and newspaper and television announcements. Some 300 came.

 

"It was wonderful," said 80-year-old Andre Campbell, who left Easthampton for the Navy in 1942. "All of us were given boutonnieres. The school gymnasium was decorated with red, white and blue streamers and posters from the war years like 'Buy Bonds", "Loose Lips Sink Ships', and Uncle Sam pointing and declaring, 'I Want You!' We had a wonderful buffet dinner. And there was the eighteen-piece Heritage Pops Orchestra playing all the old songs. The students even dressed in 1940's styles.

 

packed with students and local dignitaries.

 

As the school band played "Pomp and Circumstance," each vet marched up the aisle to the stage, one of his student sponsors by his side. There they were presented with diplomas dated with their graduation years. Then each "graduate" was introduced to the assembly by his sponsor, who announced his war record along with the decorations he earned. Cries of "Grandpa! Grandpa!" rang out.

 

Diplomas for the deceased were accepted by family. Sadly, Edward Cernak died only two weeks before the  ceremony. His stepson accepted his certificate.

 

The students had put together an Operation Recognition Yearbook for this very special class. Each contained "then and now" photos and service records of the graduates, along with student written poems of tribute and salutary greetings from national and local government officials as well as from director Steven Spielberg. Then the students and veterans joined in a chorus of "God Bless America". 

 

"I haven't felt so good since I was liberated from a German prison," said Joseph Mularski. He told how, as a staff sergeant and machine gunner with the Rainbow Division, he helped hold off two panzer units during the Battle of the Bulge.

 

I had also been in that battle, though not under such horrendous conditions, and I thank God for letting me survive one of the most terrible wars mankind has ever known. All of us veterans are grateful to people like those at Easthampton High for their recognition. For we are now passing on at the rate of over 1,000 a day. And it is nice to be remembered.

 

Editor's Note: Operation Recognition's goal is to have every high school in the nation honor its veterans the ways Easthampton High School did.

 

For more information, contact:

 

Robert C. McKean,

Department of Veterans' Services

239 Causeway Street

Suite 100

Boston, Massachusetts

02114

 

email: robert.mckean@state.ma.us