By Breanna Baldwin

On November 11, 2022 also known as Veterans day, the Junior ROTC cadets from Red River High School were given the opportunity to perform at CHRISTUS Coushatta Health Care Center in the Emergency Room. They began by setting up the POW table.

The presentation by Cadets came next.  The glass is inverted, symbolizing their inability to share a toast. The chair is empty, the seat that remains unclaimed at the table. A slice of lemon, reminding us of their bitter fate, captured and missing in a foreign land. A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears of our missing and their families, who long for answers after decades of uncertainty. The lighted candle reflects our hope for their return, alive or dead.  the single red rose symbolizes us of the lives of these Americans… and their loved ones and friends who keep the faith, while seeking answers. The yellow ribbon symbolizes our continuing uncertainty, the hope for their return, and our determination to account for them.

There were two Junior ROTC cadets in the back and two cadets in the front, one in the back was reading the POW table script while the other was making gestures to the items as they were read aloud. The two cadets in the front were at attention. As they were reading the employees were entering the room and listening to the speech.

 

Each detail of the table symbolizes an aspect of the POW life or fate, or of those who they left behind. POWs include some of the American citizens that risked it all for very little respect.

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