SCCC Honors Veterans and Remembers POW MIA Service Members
NEWTON, NJ – Sussex County Community College (SCCC) held a flag raising ceremony on Tuesday, November 11 in honor of Veterans Day. The event, which was organized by the SCCC Veterans Services Office on the campus, was held to honor veterans and to remember POW MIA service members.
An American flag, which flew over the SCCC campus for the past year, was replaced and returned to Dr. Francesca Ancona, professor of English. Dr. Ancona allowed the College to fly the flag on the campus for the past year in honor of his father, Louis Ancona.
“My father was an immigrant, who volunteered to fight in W.W.II. He truly loved this country and fought hard,” stated Dr. Ancona. “He had some purple hearts and a bronze star, but I never learned the story behind them. For like most veterans, he didn’t talk much about the war. Like most veterans, their sacrifices were not because they fought a war; they were to end a war. So each new generation could recognize the flag flying above our heads as the symbol of our freedom, to remind us of our duty to keep the American Dream alive for all Americans.”
SCCC students Melissa Landtau, U.S. Army National Guard, Andrew Perrier, U.S. Army Reserves and Corey Murphy, U.S. Army Reserves participated by lowering one flag and raising a new one in its place.
Former Navy Veteran, James Cahill, also read the POW MIA Remembrance Ceremony for those U.S. service members who were never accounted for during the war. The crowd joined in with a response of “remember” as Cahill read the symbolism of the table setting.
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