Lisbon Schools returned to an in-person Veterans Day ceremony Thursday, Nov. 11.
Lisbon secondary principal Aaron Becker noted Veterans Day is a chance for students in third through 12th grade to learn about one of the foundations of the country.
“Me personally I’ve never worn the uniform, never been to war,” Becker said. “Never been wounded or scarred in battle. Never had to leave my family for months or years to serve. I’ve never eaten an MRE, a meal ready to eat out of a bag. I’ve never been in the middle of a conflict where I feared for my life or held a dying friend in my arms. I have no idea what war is like. I have no idea what any of the experiences many Veterans have had, including fear, bravery and survival. I’m simply grateful you’ve all been willing to sacrifice for all Americans.”
Becker encouraged students at the school to consider veterans they may know as role models as opposed to athletes and superstars.
There was a video presentation of the veterans in the community that students, staff and faculty may know, including their names and branches of service.
Col. Anthony Polashek, uncle to Lisbon High School Spanish teacher Melissa Weaver, was the guest speaker at this year’s event.
Polashek, who was originally from Cedar Rapids, enlisted in the United States Air Force following Coe College.
“I was working at a job that paid better, but I wasn’t satisfied or finding the work fulfilling,” Polashek said. “Just making more money wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
Polashek decided he wanted to be a military pilot if that was possible.
Polashek said that the military would see more than 10,000 applicants in a year for every one graduate from the program.
It took Polashek two and a half years to be sponsored, in which time he had received his private pilot’s license.
“In an amazing stroke of luck, I was selected in my first board as one of 77 finalists to be a military pilot, and was then picked as one of 13 that would receive additional training,” Polashek said.
From there, Polashek has had a lengthy career. He’s flown supersonic trainers reaching speeds of Mach 1.2, to multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of Polashek’s big takeaways was that the best accomplishments in the armed forces are usually not the effort of one individual, but rather of the teams working together to achieve their goals.
“All of the really great things I’ve witnessed have been done by a team,” Polashek said.
When Polashek was inducted into the Air Force, he was trained on newer airplanes than the older airplanes in his current unit. He was flying out of the Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, getting flight time on these newer planes to take what he learned to his unit to teach others about the new systems.
He also was helpful in teaching pilots to fly fighters or other services under defensive missiles in other areas. That entailed flying planes roughly 300 feet off the ground so missiles that would seek any planes have less of a chance of hitting.
He served in Central America, where he had to land planes in some very creative and scary landing strips surrounded by rivers or cliffs and rocks.
He recalled one of his experiences in the first Gulf War was flying over the desert area of Iraq, amazed at the 1,000 miles of open desert where he never saw another person.
He’s helped fly rescue missions on Lake Michigan, aiding the local Coast Guard to locate a boater who got stranded far off the coast.
He served nine deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he was on ground in New Jersey to help with the recovery following Superstorm Sandy.
“I remember two days before the storm even made landfall, we already had fuel trucks and linemen lined up, because we knew this storm was going to be a big deal,” Polashek said. “The storm hit and more than 98 percent of roads were impassable with downed trees and power lines that took us weeks to clear. There were five million people without power up to three weeks after the storm.”
In closing, Polashek thanked the efforts of other sacrifices of other veterans for stepping up and defending this country and defending the Constitution of the United States of America.
“That’s what makes the United States unique is our military takes an oath to defend our Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic,” Polashek said. “We aren’t loyal to a party, or a president, we’re loyal to the Constitution.”
The Lisbon High School band and choir also performed at the Veterans Day service.
Lisbon Schools hold Veterans Day activities
November 18, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.