On Friday, October 31, a Vietnam veteran visited Mr. Sweredowski’s Lessons of Vietnam class. The Vietnam War, which lasted 19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day, was from 1955 to 1975. The guest speaker Mr. Kanner joined the class to share his experiences regarding the war. Mr. Kanner, who has been going to schools informally since 1986, started the program when his son was in high school. A retired Vietnam veteran he knew became a teacher and expanded the learning program.

“It’s a cooperative effort by almost all of us in the local area, North Carolina Vietnam veterans, so I’ve been doing it on and off since 1986,” said Kanner. Garner, Millbrook, Sanderson, and Wakefield were just to name a few of the schools that Mr. Kanner had previously visited.

Garth Sweredowski, who teaches Lessons of Vietnam and Social Studies, reached out to Kanner regarding guest speaking to his class. Sweredowski said his contact was through the North Carolina Veterans Association, and for 20 years they had been communicating with teachers of the course.

Mr. Sweredowski’s passion for history, especially regarding the Vietnam War, is apparent.

“The reason they have us come to these classes is we can transmit history to the students better than the history books can, because we did it, and history books sometimes gets sanitized , which is not a bad thing but there’s things we know about serving, what went wrong in Vietnam,” said Kanner.

Kanner also spoke about his experiences in the military, and whether it was positive.

“I was a 19 year old kid and didn’t know any better, but I loved the corps but couldn’t see myself going back to Vietnam a second and third time because I was there relatively early compared to some of my compatriots who in the local area are Vietnam veterans,” said Kanner. “I entered the service in 1966. I served for 11 months, 29 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. December 1966- December 1967.”

It was apparent that the students thoroughly enjoyed the presentation.

[My favorite part] was when he was passing around his gear,” said Grant Hill, a student in Mr. Sweredowski’s class.

Mr. Kanner’s visit was both educational and eye-opening, and left many students enlightened about the war.

“A lot of people were affected by it, lives were lost, and family dynamics changed.” said Kierra King, a student in Lessons of Vietnam.

Mr. Kanner said he enjoys visiting Wakefield, and his significant experiences helped define the tragic yet important circumstances that were the Vietnam War.

[There are many things] that you can’t teach out of a book, and many teachers can’t teach it because they don’t know it themselves, because they didn’t experience it.” said Kanner.