Among the brave
Owen students honor those who served in trip to Western Carolina Veterans Cemetery
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
November 12, 2021
U.S. Army Veteran and member of American Legion Post 70 John Shaw helps students from Owen High School locate the grave of Robert Knight Morgan at the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery, Nov. 9. Thirty-one Owen students participated in a service learning project designed to honor the men and women who are buried in the Black Mountain cemetery. Photo by Fred McCormick
Nearly every student at Owen High School is familiar with the Western Carolina Veterans Cemetery. Many of them pass by the sloping 47-acre property, which holds the remains of nearly six thousand veterans and their family members, as they travel to and from school along Old U.S. 70.
On Nov. 9, two days before the country was to honor the men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces on Veterans Day, 31 students from the nearby high school learned much more about the people whose names are etched into the vast rows of headstone that line the cemetery.
Members of the Owen Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program, the Warlassies varsity basketball team and Warhorses junior varsity basketball team were joined by school staff and members of American Legion Post 70, as they gathered to place flags on gravesites and gather information about some of the veterans who were laid to rest there.
The service learning project, organized by Owen Athletic Director Brook King, JROTC Army Instructor and retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jeffrey Garland and Assistant Athletic Director and women’s basketball head coach Chasity Simpson, was designed to provide students with a deeper connection to the men and women who served their country. It also coincided with the launch of the JROTC program’s Wreaths Across America campaign, which seeks to raise money for 150 remembrance wreaths to be placed on graves, Saturday, Dec. 18. For more information about the Owen JROTC Wreaths Across America initiative, or to a sponsor a wreath, visit the site linked here.
Honoring the military veterans who defend the country is a priority for Warhorse Battalion Cadet Haiden Jellison. The freshman joined the Owen JROTC program because he intends to pursue a career in the U.S. Army.
“I feel like it’s very important because many of the people who are buried here gave their lives to protect us,” Jellison said. “A lot of people take that for granted, but it’s really up to us to remember them for what they did for all of us.”
Their desire to serve, the cadet added, resonates with him.
“The reason I want to join the military is to protect America,” he said. “It’s a beautiful country, and these are the people who were willing to give their lives to defend it.”
Groups of students placed American flags near several of the headstones on a hillside in the eastern section of the cemetery, before regrouping for an assignment that followed.
Each group received a name, and students slowly searched for the coinciding marker, containing additional information about the assigned veteran.
Students from Owen High School share information about veterans who have been laid to rest in the Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain. The Nov. 9 project featured members of the school’s JROTC program, varsity women’s basketball team and junior varsity men’s basketball team. Photo by Fred McCormick
Senior Joshua Melton, who has participated in the JROTC program since his freshman year, was a member of a group that located the grave of Asheville native and U.S. Air Force Colonel Robert Knight Morgan, the commander of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, Memphis Belle. Morgan, who passed away in 2004, flew 25 missions in the European Theater of World War II. Upon completing his tour, he piloted another 26 missions in the Pacific.
“I am very glad we came here to do this today,” Melton said. “There is so much interesting information right here in this cemetery, and you can learn a lot about the people who fought for this country.”
Melton, who is also considering a military career after high school, studied many of the markers as his group navigated the cemetery.
“That was something that I really appreciated about this,” he said. “When you take your time and look at each headstone, you really get an understanding of how many people from this region have served, and you have the opportunity to read a little bit about them.”
Once each group identified the assigned grave, the students and staff gathered to discuss the experience, as a representative of each group shared additional information about the veteran they located.
“It warms my heart to know kids appreciate the service of these veterans,” said John Shaw, a U.S. Army Veteran and member of American Legion Post 70 who assisted students with flag placement and navigating the cemetery. “I think being here today was good for everybody.”
Shaw, a Swannanoa native and graduate of Owen, was impressed by the reverent tone of the students who participated in the project.
“They’ve all been so respectful,” he said. “I had one of the students ask me where she could walk because she didn’t want to disturb the graves. I showed her how to get around, but I told her that just her being here is all that would’ve mattered to these veterans.”
Shaw, who regularly joins fellow members of his post to place flags on the graves in veterans cemetery, considers himself “one of the lucky ones.”
“I wasn’t sent to Vietnam, I went with the 2nd Infantry Division to Korea, and I came home,” he said. “But, for me personally, knowing that all of the people who are buried here are veterans, whether they served in a war or not, it’s important that we support their families, and make sure they’re not forgotten.”