LIBERTY TOWNSHIP — When West Chester Township resident Everett Cole started high school in Knox County, Ky., in the early 1940s, he fully expected to graduate.

        Then came World War II. Instead of spending his senior year working on the family farm near Barbourville and going to school, the 17-year-old spent it repairing fighter planes for Uncle Sam. Mr. Cole missed combat in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 because the law forbade anyone under age 19 from being shipped overseas to fight on the front line.

IF YOU GO

Butler County veterans who did not graduate from high school due to military service are invited to participate in Lakota East High School's first veterans graduation, 9 a.m., May 11, 6840 Lakota Lane, Liberty Township.     To participate, contact Assistant Principal Keith Kline, 755-7211, Ext. 4.

        When he left the service with an honorable discharge in 1947, Mr. Cole came home, got a job, married and moved to the Cincinnati area. That is where he worked first at a sheet metal firm and then at the now-closed Fisher Body plant in Fairfield.

        He never finished high school.

        But this spring, Mr. Cole will receive an honorary diploma from Lakota East High School during a May 11 graduation ceremony designed to honor all Butler County veterans whose education was disrupted by service to their country.

        “Over the years different communities have honored vets as they came home, but it's the first (graduation ceremony) I've heard of in this area,” said Joe Andry, chief for the Columbus Bureau of Vets Services.

        Administrators and the school's National Honor Society will coordinate the project. Students will put together biographies and pictures of the veterans to be shown as each walks up to receive his diploma. The ceremony will in clude a guest speaker and will be organized similar to graduation, complete with “Pomp & Circumstance,” a color guard and patriotic songs.

        “We feel it will be meaningful not only for the vets but our kids,” said Keith Kline, Lakota East's assistant principal. ""It could be very powerful for both the veterans and students.”

        Initially, Mr. Kline proposed his idea to the West Chester VFW Post 7696, a group that works with the school on many events, including providing a color guard for the school's yearly graduation. Letters will be sent to that post as well as any veterans groups in the county.

        The ceremony is open to all Butler County veterans.
       

Winburn steps down from council
Bengals looking to settle seat suit
Pharmacies jockeying for drive-through room
Winds bring damage, outages
Chamber recognizes Cincinnati fixture
Mental-health system criticized
OxyContin use said likely to spread
SAMPLES: Fright sight
UC: Thou shalt do the right thing
Boy's project: surgery
Tower owner sues Hamilton
Vets to receive honorary diplomas
Anti-profiling lawyers team up
Audit: State's foster-care programs need work
Drug raid near Highlands nets 12
Four days in February for the birds
Horse farm's concrete icon missing
HOWARD: Neighborhoods
Immigrant sentenced to 10 years in slaying
Indictments issued in nursing home deaths
Judge allows depositions in mine case
Lebanon seeks way to buy gyms
Mayor orders files held
MCNUTT: Go Bouldering
Montgomery Inn opening in Ft. Mitchell
Mt. St. Joe offers high school honors program
Princeton Pike, Mulhauser crossings due for overhaul
UK president-designate pays calls in Capitol
Vandalism follows portfolio dispute
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report