The students at Douglas County’s Winn Elementary School spent an hour or so of class time Thursday learning an important lesson about sacrifice.
The students -- some 600 of them -- were among thousands of county residents who lined Bankhead Highway to honor a fallen hero, Marine Lance Cpl. Scott "Boots" Harper, killed last week in Afghanistan.
Harper, 21, attended first grade at Winn Elementary in Lithia Springs, and Thursday, all of the school's students turned out on a blustery October day, tiny hands clutching child-sized American flags, to pay their respects as the motorcade bearing Harper’s body slowly made its way past the school on the way to a Douglasville funeral home.
“It’s very important,” teacher Marsha Odom said.
“Some of the kids don’t understand the impact that the war actually has on the families,” she said. “It’s a real-life situation that they really need exposure to.”
Pat Bziejowski, a physical education teacher at the school for 24 years who taught Harper, said that some of the students have parents serving in the military who are currently deployed in the war zone.
“They do understand, but some of these kids have never even seen a funeral procession, so they’re amazed,” she said.
Bziejowski said the fallen Marine was in her P.E. class during the first grade.
She remembered Harper as a “really cute, funny kid. Very sweet to all the others.”
Odom said she hoped her students would come away from Thursday’s events understanding “the meaning of sacrifices that are made.”
Standing sentinel in the driveway of the school was the Marine Junior ROTC honor guard from nearby Lithia Springs High School.
First Lt. Andrew Benson, a senior member of the group, said it was “a great honor for us to be out here to support other troops.”
The event held special meaning for Benson, who is part of a large military family and plans to join the Army.
“I have one brother that left for the Air Force Monday and my middle brother is leaving in January,” said Benson, whose father served 16 years in the Army.
Douglas County residents of all ages came together to line the route of the mile-long motorcade, which included dozens of patrol cars from several law enforcement agencies along with more than a hundred motorcycles of the Patriot Guard Riders, a private group that attends military funerals and processions to shield family and friends from potential disruptions. There had been unconfirmed reports that the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas might stage a protest in Douglasville.
The motorcade began at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field, where Harper’s body was flown in around 11 a.m.
Along the road to Douglasville, the motorcade, which took a good 10 minutes to go by, passed under a massive American flag hoisted over Bankhead Highway by Greystone Power Co. crews and other large flags flying from fire department ladder trucks.
Dennis Holloway of Douglasville was one of the many lining the highway.
“I served in the Air Force and I felt like I needed to be here,” Holloway said. “This could have very easily been me.”
Purple Heart-recipient Bob Akers, who piloted helicopters in Vietnam, said it’s “always hard to lose a serviceman in any kind of environment, but it’s terribly hard to lose someone in combat.”
The Lithia Springs resident said he “came out to support the family and to salute the casket as it goes by. He doesn’t know, but we know that we love and respect our servicemen who give everything and ask for nothing in return.
“I understand what the family’s going through,” Akers said. “All we can do is pray that one of these days, this world can live in peace.”
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