MARTINS FERRY — Martins Ferry High School students on Monday honored those who have served in the military during a Veterans Day assembly at the school.

Martins Ferry High School hosted the event. Veterans attended, the high school marching band performed, speakers talked and videos honoring veterans played.

National Honor Society adviser Christine Lewis puts the program together to honor veterans every year. She said it’s a chance to honor the men and women who have served the country. NHS invites veterans who are family members of students at the school to come and educate students about Veterans Day while students and staff pay tribute to them.

“I feel it’s very important because we need to have respect for them,” Lewis said. “What they’ve done for our nation, but also a pride in our nation that I think veterans best exhibit.”

She added the assembly is a great opportunity for the school to educate students by having a veteran speak on the things he or she went through, why this nation is so important to them and why it’s important to protect the country’s freedoms.

She thanked the family members of veterans as well, because they’ve sacrificed as well, giving up time with their family members in the military.

NHS President Julianna Miller spoke on the history of Veterans Day and how it first got its name as Armistice Day because of memorial gestures that all took place on Nov. 11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I hostilities at 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918. Today Nov. 11 is recognized as Veterans Day in the United States.

In 1939, World War II broke out in Europe and shattered the dream that WWI was the war to end all wars, she said.

“Out of the 16 million Americans who served in the armed forces during World War II, more than 400,000 died,” she said. “U.S. Representative Edward H. Reese of Kansas proposed legislation changing the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor all of those who have served America in all wars.”

After Miller spoke, veteran Kirk Roth spoke about his experience and journey in the military. He went to school for combat medic training and went to three different war zones.

He said a lot of good and bad come from being in the military, such as earning a free education and the ability to serve the country in different ways, but also physical and mental struggles after.

Roth played a video for the students that showed two war veterans who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. Afterward, he talked about how when people have a bad day they should think about what soldiers in the military went through. For example, he recalled a man dying in his arms when he served as a combat medic.

“I wouldn’t give up the career I had with the military for anything in the world. I learned a lot,” Roth said. “I had a lot of fun.”

Superintendent Jim Fogle said Veterans Day is a perfect opportunity for the school to give thanks to all veterans who gave citizens freedoms. He said he hopes the assembly gives veterans something to look forward to every year, and it’s a way for the school to honor them.

He urged attendees to thank veterans for what they’ve done for the country, especially the school students who have a family member in or who served in the military.

Veterans Jim Bintz, Ron Green and Roth said they felt honored that the school acknowledged them and invited them to the assembly.

“Sacrifice is important,” Green said. “There’s no better or greater sacrifice than for your country and fellow citizens and their way of living.”