By: Matthew Du, Staff Writer

Veteran’s Day is a day in which we honor, respect, recognize, and show appreciation for all those who served or are currently serving in the military. Several students and teachers at Mills have family members who have served in the military, making Veteran’s Day for them even more special. 

Veteran’s Day, formerly Armistice Day, is a federal holiday that is celebrated annually on November 11th to recognize and honor those brave men and women who fought for our country with courage, those who gave up their lives, and those who are still affected by war. 

DeYango Harris, who is currently one of the two assistant principals here at Mills High School, was a former navy officer and a military veteran. He enlisted into the navy after graduating high school because he sought the support of the GI Bill, which pays for a veteran’s college tuition. 

Harris spoke on his most memorable experience in the navy, recounting, “Honestly, man, the most memorable thing would be the deployments and some of the port visits–specifically, Australia. That was just really fascinating. It was one of the best places I had visited…I was like, 19 or something…and it was just a very open-armed, welcoming place.” Harris went on to note that “just to experience that…in another country, especially as an African American–it just seemed like there was no color.” 

Harris briefly talked about other things he did in the military, namely his experiences in the Persian Gulf: “Well, I was [in] combat. I was up in the Persian Gulf when that last launch of missiles went out.” 

shared that her family’s service has taught her “respect and honor for them, but most importantly a sense of resilience. With this, I am more ambitious about my personal goals.” 

“I think people should understand that it’s not easy to handle family separation and their constant relocation. It’s also difficult to face that if any war happens, we have to accept it and accept possible sacrifice,” said Han. Han hopes that people will truly understand the extent of sacrifice that veterans and their families undergo. 

Don Burdette, a social studies teacher, also had a special reason to commemorate Veterans Day this year. Burdette’s dad was a military veteran–a black soldier in the segregated forces who served in World War II and the Korean War. He was also the head of the nursing unit on the battleground. His dad would go out to the battlefield to treat injured and wounded soldiers, which was a very dangerous job. He would have to treat people while avoiding getting caught by the enemies’ soldiers.

Burdette spoke on how this affected his family: “It impacted my family because, in several ways, when I was a kid, I noticed my dad had PTSD. He had obvious physical wounds. He couldn’t hear out of one ear because of a grenade, and he had some bullet wounds in his leg. But he also refused to talk about the war. It was obvious that he had lost some close people in the war. And it was obvious that he had killed people as well.” Burdette further remembered that “he would start to shiver and sweat. And I noticed that when I was a little kid and I asked my mom, ‘What’s going on with dad, what’s wrong with dad?’, she just cryptically answered that it was the war.” 

His dad retired from the army, but still continued to work in the Presidio dealing with weapon orders from the Department of Defense. 

Burdette shared how he commemorates Veterans Day: “I’m very proud that my dad was one of the last buried at Presidio National Cemetery. He’s since been joined by my mom at the same grave site. We usually go out there [and] they have all the flags planted on the grave sites… Say hello, even after we set our goodbye.” 

When asked what the greatest lesson learned from his dad being apart of the army was, Burdette answered, “I learned about honor and I learned about service. I learned about duty and a lot of words that maybe don’t get used enough anymore. My dad was part of what we call the greatest generation, and those were important words to him as he passed that on to me.” 

From the student perspective, sophomore Lara Han (10) also has family who served in the military. Han’s dad was in the Marine Corps and was in the Desert Storm in 1990, but didn’t go into the war zone. Han also has a brother who is currently serving in the Marine Corps as well. 

Han shared that her family’s service has taught her “respect and honor for them, but most importantly a sense of resilience. With this, I am more ambitious about my personal goals.” 

“I think people should understand that it’s not easy to handle family separation and their constant relocation. It’s also difficult to face that if any war happens, we have to accept it and accept possible sacrifice,” said Han. Han hopes that people will truly understand the extent of sacrifice that veterans and their families undergo. 

As a message to the whole Mills and Millbrae community this fall, Burdette summarized, “I think that the message that a lot of people know, but we all need to embrace constantly, is that when the war is over, when people come home, that isn’t the end of our responsibility to veterans. We need to especially step in and assist them for the rest of their lives.”