Honoring those here and abroad

Marisa O’Neil

Marine Staff Sgt. David Alexander could hear the fifth-grade class at

St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Costa Mesa sing the Corps’

theme song from nearly 2,000 miles away.

Stationed in Hawaii, he listened on the phone Tuesday as his

sister sat in a pew at the school’s annual Veteran’s Day program,

holding her cell phone out toward the singers. Last year, Alexander

stood front and center with other veterans and military personnel at

the program, but this year duty called.

“I knew it would mean a lot to him to hear it,” Susan Levy said as

she cradled her 5-month-old son, Nicholas. “I wish he could be here

for this. Maybe next year.”

A student body of about 600, parents, parishioners and the odd

cell-phone listener honored and remembered veterans in the fourth

annual event at the school. Military veterans and personnel,

including two recently returned from service in Iraq, filled the

first three pews at the service.

Each received a single, white carnation from a student.

“Every day is a good day to thank a veteran for fighting for our

country so we can live the American dream,” Mayor Gary Monahan said

at the service.

Keynote speaker Lenore Rickert, a Navy nurse from 1939 to 1945,

shared her experience of working in a Pearl Harbor hospital on Dec.

7, 1941. That day, she said, everybody did what they could to pitch

in and help those injured in the air attack.

“When I think of Veteran’s Day, I think of everything everybody

did that day,” she said.

Levy’s daughters, 10-year-old Rachel and 8-year-old Michelle List

sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and every grade sang a patriotic song

for the veterans -- everything from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on

recorders to a special drum march. Kindergarteners led the crowd in

the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem -- enough to tucker out

the average 5-year-old.

“I didn’t see any of it,” kindergartener Sabastien Resonnett-Blues

admitted after the program. “I was asleep.”

A few heads down from him during the assembly, Adriel Arabe, 5,

dozed on 6-year-old Maraide Richards’ shoulder while she leaned

against him, also snoozing.

Maraide finally stirred, a little confused by the situation, just

in time to stand for a medley of armed forces tunes. She nudged

Adriel awake.

But all the kindergarteners woke up for a visit from U.S. Army

Staff Sgt. Thomas Ralph, recently returned from service in Iraq,

after the show. His photo hangs in their classroom and the entire

class had been praying for him all year long, teacher Colleen Pena

said.

Ralph graduated from the school in 1983.

“All the kindergarteners are learning about Iraq now,” 13-year-old

Aubrey Brown explained. “It’s important for them to realize things

are going on now. To them, fighting in a war is something that was

done by their grandparents.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].