Some Austin-area veterans are now high school graduates years after they went to the frontline instead of the stage.
Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported that the Austin Independent School District (AISD) held a graduation ceremony on Friday for those who fought in any of the previous six wars the U.S. was involved in. Per the station, the ceremony was held at McCallum High School.
The report said that any veteran who served in a formally declared war by the U.S. per the War Powers Resolution of 1973 was eligible to apply and participate in the ceremony.
Lance Corporal Ricky Sauls, an Austin High School alumnus, served in the U.S. Marine Corp. (USMC) for a number of years during the Vietnam War, explaining to KVUE how he attempted to return to school following his honorable discharge in 1978.
“Each time I tried, something came up in the family,” Sauls told the station.
He added that his mother died and his father was stricken with dementia but remained determined to accomplish his goal.
“When I heard about this, I mean, I was just so grateful,” Sauls said in the report.
KVUE reported that Sergeant William Nealy left before his 1989 graduation from what was then known as Sidney Lanier High School to enlist in the Army as a cook.
More than 30 years later, Nealy is proud to finally call himself an AISD graduate.
“Having this means more than you could ever dream of because, like, I always wanted to get my high school diploma, and for AISD to honor on Veterans Day – it means the whole world to me,” he told the station.
Sauls told Austin CBS affiliate KEYE that he believes his late mother is proud of his accomplishment as much as he is.
“She’s looking from heaven, smiling and praising God!” he told the station.
The gravity of the occasion, which was held on Veterans Day, wasn’t lost on Nealy, KEYE reported.
“I always wanted to do that, and it [kind of] choked me up,” he told the station.
