“Honoring all that served” Veterans Day Ceremony held at Robeson Community College
During a ceremony held Friday morning, Robeson Community College commemorated Veterans Day by “Honoring all that served.”
“As pay tribute to our veterans, we acknowledge their sacrifice, we honor their service,” stated Eric Freeman, the executive vice president of Robeson Community College. “Together let us honor their legacy and also remember to keep them in our thoughts and prayers, let’s do everything within our power to support them.”
Riley Dial, the 2023-2024 Junior Miss Lumbee sang the National Anthem, which was followed by the presentation of the wreath by Basic Law Enforcement Training students. The wreath was positioned on an easel by the podium, a patriotic floral arrangement full of red, white, and blue roses and ribbons.
“We are here today to remember all veterans who have served this great country,” stated Sherry Lofton, as she introduced the winner of the poetry contest, Samiah Williams, “Looking in a Veteran’s Eyes.”
“Looking in a veteran’s eyes, you see bravery and courage…” Williams said as she read her poem out loud. “Stories of having to sacrifice for our country, knowing their life could end any day… as they see their life begin to unfold… in the eyes of veterans, we see the light… light that shows us they are heroes…”
Retired Army Sergeant First Class Robert Lee Linebarger served as the guest speaker.
“What is it to be a veteran?” asked Linebarger. “Somebody asked me that years ago when I was young and naive. I thought it was about winning, guns, and badges, oh how quickly I was humbled.”
“Through the years I have learned, it’s about humility and service,” Linebarger said, answering the question. “It takes somebody to stand up and say I will, I will defend, it takes a lot … to step up and make that commitment.”
“As a veteran, it doesn’t matter what branch you served in…at the end of the day, we all bleed red, we all fought with one another, and we all served with one another.”
“My inspiration to serve was my father,” Linebarger continued to say. “My father was a WWII Veteran. He was who I looked up to, he was what I thought a man should be, a soldier should be, and I aspired to be what he was. If I am ever half the man that he was, I know I’ve accomplished something in this life.”
Linebarger pointed out that service to one’s country is not just a sacrifice made by the soldier, marine, sailor, airman, or guardsman, but of his or her entire family.
“There’s a sacrifice of the family – husbands, wives, sons’ daughters, parents, their loved one serving off in a far-off land,” Linebarger said, a truth he knows first-hand as his son and son-in-law are currently serving in the military.
As he read a poem he wrote, Service and its Price, Linebarger reflected upon his own personal experience as a veteran.
“At 18 years of age, off I went, the great adventure so I thought… for glory and medals my motivation it was, but the reality was quick and rudely harsh…” Linebarger said. “Humility, humbleness was the order of the day, not of self but of the team, to serve not be served, to defend our nation and persevere… for 20 some-years, maybe a few more, I gave it my all, the sweat, blood and tears.”
“Friends made for life, adversaries too… my body it hurts each day, arthritis and fatigue, to my ears ringing with no relief in sight” continued Linebarger as he read his poem. “Memories I have, many funny and humorous and some dark and painful, those I hide inside my soul… my family sacrificed, they did too, deployments, field duty, military schools far away, birthdays and holidays, anniversaries missed… twenty plus years serving my God and my country.”
The Robeson County Honor Guard ended the ceremony with a 21-gun salute and the playing of Taps, a symbolic tribute to honor all veterans who may have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard and the newest branch – Space Force.
