Wylie  ISD AFJROTC cadets participate in the 25th annual Veterans Day Program, Friday, Nov. 10, at Wylie Stadium. The event honored local veterans who are serving or have served their country. Jeremy Hallock/The Wylie  News

A crowd that included over 100 local veterans showed up at Wylie Stadium on a cold and overcast day to honor those who served their country. 

The 25th annual Veterans Day Program hosted by Wylie ISD was held Friday, Nov. 10. 

“Veterans are our honored guests today,” said Lt. Col. Darren James, aerospace science instructor at Wylie High School. “It has been said that a veteran is someone who at one point in his or her life wrote a blank check made payable to the people of the United States of America for an amount up to and including his or her life.”

Numerous educational leaders from the district were thanked by Col. Brooks McFarland, senior aerospace science instructor at Wylie East High School. Then the crowd was offered the following words from former Wylie High School principal Virdie Montgomery, recited by Wylie East High School Cadet Sydney Foster.

“I am proud to be an American. We are good people with just intentions. When I see that flag, I know what it really stands for. If there is hurt, wrong or even evil amongst us in this country, that flag wants no part of it. It is the one thing that bonds us together and it actually stands most likely against what you are angry with. It is the true reflection of what American should be. Not what it is in some cases, but what it should be. It is the symbol of that we have historically always rallied behind when the need arose. This flag does not divide, it unifies.”

To read the full story and support your local newspaper subscribe today to The Wylie News.

By Jeremy Hallock | [email protected]