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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Isabella High School held its annual Veterans Day program put on by its historical society on Nov. 8 honoring veterans in its school and community. Each year, a speaker is featured that gives a speech to the crowd inside the IHS auditorium, and this year it was United States Navy Retired Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Lovelace.

Lovelace spoke about his 20-year military career and about all of the places he was able to see around the world because he decided to enlist. Lovelace was in the Navy and worked closely with weapons training, and he saw action in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Kuwait and Iraq. He spoke about experiences like spending his wife’s birthday in Paris, and being stationed in Sicily where you could see out onto the beaches where the Allied Forces stormed them to liberate Sicily in World War II.

“Being on that ship, I saw the world, and I definitely saw things in places that if I would have never joined, I would have never seen,” Lovelace said. “I have absolutely zero regrets for my entire 20-year career, and if you want to do it, by all means do it. You make a lot of friends … If you are thinking about joining, do not hesitate. You will get life experiences, make contacts and learn things you would never learn without that opportunity.”

Isabella students Lexi Higgins and Bucky Smith started the program with the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, respectively. IHS Historical Society President Ryleigh Simmons welcomed everyone to the program before inviting the sixth graders at IHS on stage to sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “America, the Beautiful.”

IHS Historical Society teacher James McCall has been putting on the program the six years he has been at the school.

“The last few years the historic society has put together some tremendous projects for the school and community,” McCall said. “The members the last three years have selflessly served as officers and in roles in programs … The kids are tremendous.”

There was also a video compiled of classes thanking veterans for their service to the country, and a recognition of all the veterans in attendance by military branch concluded the program.

The Isabella High School Historical Society consists of Simmons as the President, Higgins as the Vice-President, Crimsyn Abbott as the Secretary, Bryce Masone as the Treasurer and Eliza Lovett as the Historian. IHS has 54 members in its historical society as a whole.