Students lead heartfelt Veterans Day Ceremony

School Safety Director Art McCann, himself a decorated Army veteran, greeted the audience before UCHS junior Ragan McCarter provided the invocation. Overhead, the portraits of Union County veterans played on the screens in a slideshow honoring true “hometown heroes.”

In a patriotic opening, members of American Legion Post #121 and the 152nd Civil Air Patrol posted the colors, and the Union County High School Band performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Then, it was time for McCarter to return to the podium.

“Today is a special day where we honor all of our veterans and thank them for their service to our country,” McCarter said.

The band, alongside the Union County High School Chorus and Union County Middle School Chorus, played large roles in the ceremony, performing “God Bless the USA” and each military branch theme as veterans belonging to those branches stood to be applauded for their service.

Two graduating seniors received recognition for their decisions to join the service – Ava Williams, who has joined the Army and plans to become a medic, and Joseph Teague, who will train as an infantryman at Fort Benning.

Six veterans received Quilts of Valor during the ceremony, with each standing and facing the audience as students helped show off and then drape the unique, hand-made coverings – crafted with care by the Misty Mountain Quilters Guild – over their shoulders.

Sgt. Thomas Ross grew up in Fannin County and first joined the Army in 1966, just a year out of high school. He trained in parachute pack maintenance and air delivery, and served at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Bragg in North Carolina before being honorably discharged in 1968.

Ross enlisted again in 1981 and was assigned to the 210th Military Police Company. He participated in Desert Shield and Desert Storm as part of the Persian Gulf War from 1990 to 1991 and was honorably discharged again in 1992.

Specialist Justin Weaver was born and raised in Union County, having graduated from UCHS in 2019. He joined the Army as a senior and received orders for Fort Benning in Columbus right after graduation. In 2020, his unit was deployed to Afghanistan.

Weaver served as a grenadier in a fire team during combat and was honorably discharged in 2022. When he returned home, he pursued a career in law enforcement and worked as a jailer at the Union County Jail.

Utilizing military funding, Weaver attended Young Harris College to earn a degree in psychology. He took an opportunity to work at the Department of Justice and plans to seek a full-time position with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Joseph “Joe” Telford hails from Cleveland. He joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1998 and trained as a helicopter mechanic before being deployed to Afghanistan in 2004.

By 2005, he had entered the Army Warrant Officer Flight Training Course and graduated at the top of his class in 2006. Along with that, he holds a degree in industrial systems technology from North Georgia Technical College.

While in the Middle East, he was part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn and Operation Inherent Resolve. By the time of his retirement in 2023, Telford had earned the rank of Chief Warrant Officer after 25 years of service.

1st Sgt. Nick Maney graduated from Conway High School in South Carolina in 1996 and entered the Army soon afterward. He became an infantryman and served in leadership positions in Light Infantry, Airborne Reconnaissance and Stryker combat units.

Maney deployed to Iraq three times and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Senior Rated Jumpmaster Wings, the Ranger Tab, three Meritorious Service Medals and 10 Army Commendation Medals.

Col. Anthony Allen attended the University of Georgia and graduated cum laude in 1988. He finished officer basic training in 1989 before completing radiology residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in 1998. On top of that, he completed an interventional radiology fellowship at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

Over the course of 28 years of service, Allen served in South Korea, Hawaii, Texas, Germany and Iraq. He was part of Operation Enduring Freedom and was deployed to Baghdad in 2008 as Chief of Radiology. Allen earned the Order of Military Medical Merit, an honor reserved for only the Top 10% of providers in the field.

Lt. Col. Patricia Allen is the wife of Anthony Allen, and she earned a Doctorate of Optometry and Master of Healthcare Administration. While in the U.S. Army Pacific Command, she served in senior administrative roles.

Along with her military service, Allen has worked in humanitarian missions in Russia, Fiji, the Maldives and the Philippines. She, too, earned an Order of Military Medical Merit and retired in 2015 after 24 years of service.

Following the chorus’ performance of “Song for the Unsung Hero,” UCHS junior Ella Akins offered a student message, admitting that a particular response from a veteran at last year’s ceremony continued to stick with her.

When thanking him for his service, he remarked that people like her were “worth it.” People like her, she realized, who weren’t even born when he fought for the safety and freedom of his country, held the responsibility of continuing to honor those who sacrifice so much to protect the American way of life.

The band and chorus joined together one more time with “America the Beautiful” before the final part of the ceremony was dedicated to those who were never able to return home.

The Missing Man Table was presented with explanations for the symbolism behind each item. Members of the Union County High School Chorus Ensemble then quietly made their way to the front of the stage and performed an emotional rendition of “Amazing Grace” for the fallen.

Woody Gap student Lilli-May Dempsey delivered the closing prayer, and as McCann dismissed those gathered, the band played “Stars and Stripes Forever,” leaving everyone to remember that freedom does not come free.