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Teaching Patriotism

Retired military officers working with teen-agers to teach patriotism

By Andrea Billups
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Retired military officers from around the nation are volunteering their time to teach teen-agers the importance of patriotism, a value they say is missing from the education of today's youth.
     Members of the Military Order of the World Wars, a nonprofit group for officers of all uniformed services, offer free scholarships to 10,000 high school students each year to attend leadership conferences where they learn about respect, accountability, free enterprise and service to country.
     The students also hear speakers who lecture about U.S. history, the flag and the importance of becoming citizens of character, courage and integrity.
     "We're teaching things that have been diluted in our school system," says Jack Nicholson, a retired Army brigadier general who heads the order's office of planned giving. "The teen-agers are very grateful for this experience. Some say it turned their whole life around."
     Paula Haley, a retired Air Force lieutenant and Vietnam War veteran, is commandant of the order's Annapolis, Md., chapter. She will host 60 young men and women, some coming from as far away as California, in late June. They will stay on the campus of St. John's College for three days of seminars led by career military officers who volunteer their time for the program each year.
     Students will hear lectures on the Bill of Rights and a speech from a former Vietnam prisoner of war, who will talk about "what it takes to love your country," Miss Haley said.
     The Annapolis leadership conference, like the 17 others that will be held by the military order nationwide this year, is based on learning and values but won't be short on fun, Miss Haley said.
     The Maryland students will board buses for a visit to Fort McHenry and the Flag House in Baltimore, as well as a tour of the U.S. Naval Academy and a local Marine barracks, where they will watch the cadets perform parade maneuvers.
     "We're not on a recruiting mission for the military," Miss Haley said. "We see this as a way of giving back to the kids and to teach them leadership skills.
     "We just want them to walk away and to have learned what it means to be a better citizen, to tell the truth, to love and serve your country," she said.
     The leadership conferences are held on college campuses as well as at the national Boy Scout Ranch, the Freedom Foundation in Valley Forge, Pa., and at several military bases, including Camp Pendleton near San Diego.
     Participants are nominated by their high school principals, selected through local civic groups like the Civitan and Rotary clubs, or chosen from the ranks of their high school ROTC programs. A few pay their own way, their eager parents willing to cover the $250 cost, Miss Haley said.
     "I think their parents realize all the bad things that are happening around them today and they see the importance of having their children attend a conference where the focus is on leadership," she said. "They want their children to be around other outstanding kids that achieve."
     Aidan Tunnell, a graduating senior at Santa Fe High School in New Mexico, first attended the Arizona Youth Leadership conference in 1998 and went on to attend six others.
     "I learned more about my country in a couple of days than I had ever learned with years of history lessons," he said. "I truly believe that those conferences have changed the way I look at my country and government. . . . Leadership is a word I never thought twice about, but I can now proudly say that I am a leader."
     Testimonials like that please Mr. Nicholson, who hopes corporations and other potential donors may hear about the order's program and chip in to defray the costs to house and feed the students.
     "We want to expand this program so we can involve hundreds of thousands of kids, not just thousands," he said. "We've got something real good going here. It's important to the country and it's valuable to our teen-agers."

Copyright (c) 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission from The Washington Times.
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