Aiken High observes Veterans Day

As Aiken High NJROTC executive officer Bradley Wilkes salutes, commanding officer Nick DeLoache rings the bell in a Veterans Day ceremony Tuesday - commemorating the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. Staff photo by Rob Novit.

For Aiken High's Naval Junior ROTC commanding officer Nick DeLoache, the Veterans Day ceremony Tuesday was especially meaningful.

"My grandfather, George DeLoache, was here," he said. "He served in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II. He just had knee surgery but put off rehab to be here. For him to go out of his way like that, and sharing this experience is very touching, a great feeling."

The ceremony included music by the Aiken High Band. All veterans were recognized, including six AHS faculty members - NJROTC commander Tony Negron and senior chief Bruce Bryant, and teachers Jim Saine, David Smith, Fred Pilot and Michael Fulmer.

The guest speaker was retired Navy Rear Adm. Wayne Rickman. A Naval Academy graduate, the Aiken resident spent 31 years in the Navy, including tours on destroyers and in nuclear submarines.

After his selection to the rank of rear admiral, Rickman commanded the Naval Submarine Group 9. His last assignment was at Commander Training U.S. Atlantic Fleet, where he was responsible for 14 training centers. Since Rickman's retirement in 1990, he has worked as a nuclear operations consultant, primarily in conjunction with the Department of Energy. He founded the Rickman Group about 10 years ago.

In his address, Rickman described military veterans as stewards of freedom because people today were provided their freedoms by the veterans of past generations. The first veterans who defeated Britain in the Revolutionary War, said Rickman, were farmers, frontiersmen, shopkeepers, merchants, plantation owners, sailers and ship captains. The Declaration of Independence had delineated the rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

"Through the efforts of those veterans," he said, "these rights became the foundation for the establishment of our nation, and now they continue to be the foundation of our way of life."

Americans are fortunate because of the location of their birth and the benefits they receive as a result, said Rickman.

"We must accept that mantle to become stewards of freedom," he said. "For the benefit of our future generations, and in the honor of and our debt to our past generations - indeed, to those first veterans - we must ensure these freedoms are passed on, intact, to the next generation."

Following Rickman's speech, DeLoache sounded the bell that commemorates the signing of the Armistice, ending World War I at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

"It's one of those things that really touches you," DeLoache said. "It makes you think about what the ringing is for, and to have that opportunity was overpowering."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.