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Western Alamance High School students gathered Tuesday to reflect on courage and express gratitude for those in the armed forces, including an alumnus who was killed in Afghanistan this summer.

Students and community members came together for the Veterans Day event and remembered 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Roger Hager, a 2008 graduate and Marine.

“Teachers say he was quiet, but in the service he spoke through his actions,” said junior Erika Escobar. “He showed determination and commitment serving our country. He showed a lot of courage for someone so young.”

The event highlighted how many people in the community have relatives who have served in the past or are serving now.

Escobar, who, as part of the Student Council, helped organize the event, has a brother-in-law who is returning to Afghanistan in June for a second tour of duty in the Army.

Teacher Mary Ward, adviser to the Student Council, has a 26-year-old son in the Army who will return there this summer as well — for a fourth tour of duty.

The principal presented three yellow roses to Elaine Farren, in honor of her son Roger Hager and her two children currently serving in the military.

The band director asked people to stand when the band played the march of the armed services branch in which a loved one or friend has served. By the time the final song, the “Navy Hymn,” filled the air, almost every person was standing.

The Student Council began organizing the event the first week of school. Staff thought it would be a smaller, after-school gathering, but the students wanted more.

U.S. Rep. Howard Coble and N.C. Sen. Tony Foriest spoke at the assembly.

“Who among us is willing to leave home and family ... and risk life and limb?” Foriest asked. “These veterans have done their duty, and we all have benefitted from it.”

Foriest said people need to keep in mind the physical and mental harm that leaves many soldiers “buried in pain.” Many veterans will never again be whole or experience life as they knew it before battle, he said. Some even end up homeless.

He finished by reading a poem “The Final Inspection,” about a soldier facing God’s judgement at the gates of heaven.

The audience got a special surprise when a taped video
message from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was played. Williams taped the message a few weeks ago at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

“I’ve got a boy at Elon (University), so I know exactly where you are,” he told the students. “Wherever Roger Hager is, he knows you are celebrating his life right now.”

Ward asked Williams to tape the message. The two became friends after Ward’s son helped protect Williams’ helicopter in the Iraq invasion in 2003.

“It’s a great honor,” Farren said after the event. “I’m happy to see that people still remember my son.” She’s mailing a DVD recording of the assembly to her other son, stationed in Afghanistan.

The school will place a memorial display in the media center to honor Hager, which will include a flag, photo and student painting of the Purple Heart medal that Hager received.

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at 449-4610 or jamie.kennedy @news-record.com