NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION, POINT MUGU, California - Capt. Karl Andina, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division vice commander, addressed 600 kindergarten through 8^th grade students during an early Veterans Day celebration at Santa Rosa Technology Magnet School on Nov. 6 in Camarillo, California.

Approximately 50 veterans representing all branches of service also attended the event, where students served them breakfast and honored them with patriotic songs. The Naval Base Ventura County color guard also aided in the ceremony, parading the colors during the national anthem, sung by Noah Burr, son of Rich Burr, NAWCWD’s director of threat/target systems department.

Michelle Burr, a teacher at Santa Rosa Technology Magnet School, organized the annual event and coordinated the guest speaker and veteran attendance.

Andina encouraged the students to honor the veterans by learning about their service, helping the children come up with questions they might ask.

“I talked about which military service our veterans were in; that could be one of five different things,” he said. “I am in the Navy so that is one. Can you guys help me with the other four?”

After some discussion, Andina and the children had three questions for the veterans present: which branch of the military did they serve in, how long did they serve, and where did they go.

“Another good question to ask is ‘what did they do in the military’,” Andina added. “Maybe they were a soldier, maybe they were on a ship, or flew in a plane, or drove a tank.  There are a lot of different things to do in the military.”