Third-grade through sixth-grade students at Towamensing Elementary School mustered up a platoon of questions Friday afternoon when Vietnam War veteran Glen Lippincott came to visit for Veterans Day.

Lippincott, who is director of Small Group Operations with VALOR, told them what it means to be a veteran. He told them how sometimes people come back from military service physically injured and sometimes it's emotional.At VALOR, Lippincott helps veterans who have been homeless and want to get help for the emotional wounds and Post-traumatic stress disorder."We have pulled together as a community of veterans to help these homeless veterans transition from homelessness to a home and productivity," he said.VALOR is a grassroots organization created by veterans for veterans.The children donated enough food and hygiene items to fill a 4-foot-by-8-foot table in the gymnasium. The items will be used at the VALOR shelter and given to homeless veterans that aren't ready yet to come in.The children asked how a person goes about joining the military and about his own military service."Why did you join?" asked one child."I was drafted," he responded, he didn't choose to go.Lippincott said he had been in college, but quit. That's when he was drafted to go to Vietnam."The draft doesn't exist anymore," he said.Lippincott said he served for two years as an infantry rifleman in the Army. He made it to the rank of Specialist Fourth Class when he was injured.While he was stationed in the Quang Nam Province, his platoon of nine men was ambushed by the enemy. Two men in his platoon died, and he was injured when a grenade went off 6 feet away from him. Shrapnel cut into his side and he lost a portion of his intestines."I'm lucky to be here with you today," Lippincott told the children.A child asked him, "How did the war start?" and another asked, "Where do most wars happen?""That's a pretty sophisticated question," he said to each of the children. The answers weren't so easy.After the presentation, Lippincott said he's used to giving presentations to students who are juniors and seniors in high school. He admitted to struggling with the right level of information for the age group, but felt he hit a stride midway."Their enthusiasm was overwhelming," Lippincott said.He asked them how many know someone who was in the military and how many of them visited the Moving Wall, a reduced scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall, that was erected in Palmerton Borough Park in late July.Many hands flew into the air. Child after child told how their grandfather or some other relative was in World War II or a branch of the military. And almost all of the children had visited the Moving Wall."They were excited and proud to tell about the veteran in their family," Lippincott said. That was very impressive to him.Throughout the talk, the room was consistently filled with children's hands raised up as high as they could put them. Little faces with pent up questions waited to be answered.As the children departed for the day, many thanked him for his service, and some waved goodbye or gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.Third-grade teacher Sue Warakomski said she organized the day's events and food drive with the help of teachers Ashley Hummer, Trisha Green, Brittany Hunsicker, Krystle Meglio, Kelly Ruddick, Kathryn McKeon and William Zeky."We were trying to give the children an idea of what Veterans Day is," she said.The kindergarten through second-grade children had visits from veterans Friday morning.