Williamstown Middle/High School hosts Veterans Day Assembly

Local News Williamstown Middle/High School hosts Veterans Day Assembly By Sophie Wheeler November 11, 2026 4 min read Attendees stand for the posting of colors by the Parkersburg South High School JROTC at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) U.S. Army veteran Arthur Tucker speaks on the importance of ceremonies for Americans at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Members of Parkersburg South High School JROTC and Marine Corps League Detachment 1087 present a flag to Williamstown High School, received by Kelly Hendrickson, at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Students and veterans gather at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Kelly Hendrickson, Veterans Day Assembly chairperson, thanks veterans for their service at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) 1 / 5 expand close ✕ Attendees stand for the posting of colors by the Parkersburg South High School JROTC at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) U.S. Army veteran Arthur Tucker speaks on the importance of ceremonies for Americans at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Members of Parkersburg South High School JROTC and Marine Corps League Detachment 1087 present a flag to Williamstown High School, received by Kelly Hendrickson, at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Students and veterans gather at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) Kelly Hendrickson, Veterans Day Assembly chairperson, thanks veterans for their service at the Williamstown Middle/High School Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. (Photo by Sophie Wheeler) 1 / 5 Trending WILLIAMSTOWN -- Williamstown Middle/High School held its annual Veterans Day Assembly on Tuesday morning. The assembly featured student and community speakers discussing the historical and symbolic significance of traditions, along with the recognition of military veterans, including guest speaker Arthur Tucker, a U.S. Army veteran. Student body President Quinn Bunch spoke on the history and etiquette of the Pledge of Allegiance. Composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892, the pledge has been modified four times, with Bunch noting the addition of “under God” in 1954. That followed the adoption of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” two years prior. "In a few short phrases, it lays out what our county strives to achieve,” Bunch said. “The next time you start and recite the pledge, thank about what you're saying. It's deceptively simple, but packs a powerful message." Senior class representatives Kyla Myer and Lakyn Harshbarger noted the significance and meaning of the folding of the American flag, while members of the Parkersburg South High School JROTC and Marine Corps League Detachment 1087 performed the ceremony. Myer stated the ceremony is provided as a patriotic service, with the canton of blue containing stars representing the states veterans served in uniform and denoting honor. The field of blue dresses from left to right and is only inverted when draped over a funeral cloth on a casket of a veteran who has served honorably in uniform. Myer also stated the flag once folded represents a cocked hat, "reminding us of the soldiers who served under Gen. George Washington and the Marines who served under Capt. John Paul Jones." Tucker spoke on the weight and importance of ceremony and traditions. "The power that ceremonies contain to engage us in every facet of our lives, I'll simply put it before us as a question: Why do we in the United States of America need such ceremonies?” he said. “First, our ceremonies like this defend our civilization from barbarism. Our participation in ceremonies reminds us that some things are of such importance that every other aspect of life ought to stop, or at least pause for them. COVID-19 surely reminded us of how critical connection and unity is. ... Ceremonies protect and defend the ideals that have best served humanity across the long corridor of history. Those ideals that came to us have been derived and recorded in document after document throughout history.” Tucker spoke on the relevance of the Magna Carta, saying, "(In it) you will find some of the statements that make our own Constitution, and from it we derived what we call the first 10 amendments of our Constitution," he said. "The oath taken upon entering any of the armed services (is) 'I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.' It may include the plain and simple preservation of the document itself, but I urge you to think how much more deeply it goes. It means protecting and defending the ideals that give that document power, and that's what we are swearing ourselves to do,” he said. “Ceremony, rites, rituals, traditions or such events as this go by a variety of names. We may even have forgotten their original intent, but we still participate in them." Kelly Hendrickson, Veterans Day Assembly chairperson, closed the ceremony by thanking veterans for their service and remembering "the sacrifices of those who have served and who continue to serve our country." "As we stand here in grateful remembrance of the veterans' contributions, we renew our conviction of individual responsibility to live in ways that support our eternal truths upon which our country was founded, and from which flows all its strength and all its greatness,” she said. Sophie Wheeler can be reached at [email protected].