Bill Berger showcases his various pins earned as an Army paratrooper following the Korean War.

It was a combination of education and patriotism last Friday at Belle Chasse High School, where the annual Veterans Day celebration takes place.

Every classroom had a veteran or group of veterans from different wars and generations inside, poised to tell their stories of life in the armed forces. As students passed from room to room, they got a different look at what it means to be a veteran.

“I think it’s really cool,” said ninth-grader, Kirsten Romero. “My dad is in the military, so I know a lot about it, and it’s cool to hear their stories. You get to learn how they survive.”
One such story was from Bill Berger, of Algiers, who joined the Army in 1956 with two friends. The three agreed to go to jump school and become paratroopers, but both Berger’s friends chickened out at the last minute. Berger went on alone, and had many memories and photographs to share from his days of jumping out of airplanes.

Another room held five young army reserve privates, led for the morning by Major Dwayne William, who made their service sound glamorous and almost unanimously agreed they enlisted for the $20,000 bonus.

“The Army is probably the best place in the world to go,” said Major William to the group of BCHS seniors.

And when it comes to defending American freedom abroad, he said, “I would twist a lot of heads for that.”

“I look out at you, and I can see a couple killers out there. I think I just recruited about four of you,” William jokingly added toward the end of the class period.

Following lunch, the students and veterans reunited for an assembly.