VINTON–William Byrd is the only high school in Roanoke County with an Air Force JROTC program, although students from all five high schools may enroll. So it is not surprising that WBHS each year hosts one of the most memorable Veterans Day ceremonies. The sight of an athletic field full of young cadets saluting veterans and active duty personnel is always moving, as is the Flag Retirement Ceremony that is part of the observance.
On November 11 the veterans program began with performances by the William Byrd High School choir and the Marching Terrier Band.
Veterans, some elderly or disabled, were transported to the stadium by golf carts, where they were recognized and thanked for their service.
Cadets committed flags being retired to the flames and then passed in review for their instructor, Col. Jay Thompson.
One special flag this year was donated by Sharon and Gordon Menzies in honor of their daughter Lt. Col. Heather Menzies who is a member of the United States Air Force Reserves. She has been deployed four times as part of her USAF duties as a flight nurse, twice to Afghanistan.
On her last tour of duty there which ended in January 2014, she was assigned to Bagram Airfield in northern Afghanistan as a member of the 459th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. Her main workspace was the cabin or cargo bay of C-130 military transport aircraft. The evacuation team stabilized wounded soldiers who were transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany or back to the United States.
The flag that her parents contributed to the ceremony was one they had flown at their home while their daughter served in Afghanistan.
Heather Menzies is a 1993 graduate of William Byrd and a 1995 graduate of the nursing program at Virginia Western. She completed her education in nursing at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University. She now works at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in the Post Anesthesiology Care Unit and is still a member of the Air Force Reserves.
She first became interested in nursing at age 12 when she volunteered as a “candy striper” at the army hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, while her father was stationed there. Gordon Menzies served in the Navy Reserves for three and a half years and in the Army for 22 years. He retired in 1990 after two tours in Germany, one in Panama, and one in Vietnam.
The Veterans ceremony on the field at WBHS was followed by a luncheon for the servicemen and women and then a Meet and Greet in the school gym. Students were able to talk with veterans and ask about their experiences in the nation’s service.
One of those veterans was Vinton attorney Bruce Mayer who served on active duty at Fort Knox during the Vietnam era and then in the Reserves. He was discharged as a Captain.
Mayer was a member of the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech and did his basic training in boot camp in Pennsylvania. At one point, his training involved helicopter flights into a simulated Vietnamese combat situation in a fictitious village complete with real Vietnamese refugees, their children, pigs, chickens, huts, and a booby trapped trail.
On active duty at Fort Knox he was trained to be a platoon leader. He was destined for duty in Germany or Vietnam when President Richard Nixon called a halt to the deployments of troops.
Four generations of his family have served in the Army, including his son, who served in Afghanistan. His step grandfather served in World War I and his father in World War II. One of his father’s duties was running telephones lines which enabled the Nuremberg trials to take place. His uncle fought on the other side—for Austria.
Mayer told the students that he was never in combat and never shot at, but he did what his country asked him to do.
Mayer’s son Brandon graduated from William Byrd in 2004. He left his studies in religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in 2008 to enlist in the army in midst of the Iraq war. His plan was to become a linguist. During his time in the military he became fluent in Pashto, one of the two official languages in Afghanistan and became a Pashto language analyst.
He re-enrolled at Roanoke College in 2013, this time majoring in business. He recently applied for and received a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in India, studying foreign investment coming into the country.
Mayer told the students that, “Brandon’s success proves you can start at William Byrd and go places.”
