ROCKLAND — One gentleman seated at the Rockland District Middle School’s Veterans breakfast Tuesday, Nov. 10, made the army his career. He served as mechanic for 33 years with stints in Vietnam, Germany, and Desert Storm.

The gentleman opposite him avoided the draft by volunteering to go to Vietnam. Instead, he spent his two years of service assigned to the kitchen at Fort Hood.

The particular details of service did not matter to the students, who repeated in various forms the sacrifice all military personnel endured for the sake of country.

Participants of each grade either sang a patriotic song, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, or read a report in relation to the day’s importance.

Below is an alternative version of the Pledge of Allegiance recited during the ceremony.

I pledge allegiance to the flag...

Because your loyalty has given us [indiscernible] to have freedom [indiscernible]

Of the united, we have all come together.

Individual communities have united into 50 great states. Fifty individual communities with pride, dignity, and purpose. All divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united through a common purpose...

And that’s love for country.

And to the republic, a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern.

Government is the people. It is from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

For which it stands. One nation under God. One country, one land, our homeland.

Indivisible. Incapable of being divided. With liberty, freedom, the right and power to live one’s own life without threat, fear, or some sort of retaliation.

And justice, the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.

For all. It’s as much your country as it is mine.