Veterans Share Stories With Parkview Students

Veterans Larry Stevenson and Larry Brooks stopped by Parkview Elementary School on Thursday, Nov. 8, to share stories about their time serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

Both are members of Sedalia Veterans Of Foreign War Post 2591 and Voiture 333 of the 40 & 8 veterans group. Stevenson shared stories from basic training, learning everything from how to salute properly to firing an 81-millimeter mortar.

Brooks discussed his work as a combat engineer, building roads and bridges to keep supply lines open; he also described Vietnam as “a rough country, but some areas were really pretty.”

The students asked questions about the doctors who tended to wounded on the battlefield, how the men learned they were being sent overseas, what they ate and how they were treated when they returned home.

“I am proud I went,” Brooks told the students. “I am proud I did my part. It is an honor to be a veteran."

PIC1: Veterans Larry Stevenson, left, and Larry Brooks tell an amusing story about MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat, with second grade students Thursday morning at Parkview Elementary. To mark Veterans Day, the pair shared some of their experiences in the military during the Vietnam War.

PIC2: Parkview second grader Piper Lackman asks the veterans how they learned they were being deployed overseas.

PIC3: Veteran Larry Stevenson tells Parkview Elementary second graders about his work with the 40 & 8 group and placing American flags on light poles all the way down Ohio Avenue.

PIC4: Parkview Elementary teachers and students listen as veterans Larry Stevenson and Larry Brooks answer students’ questions.