Paula Fiscus Is Guest Speaker At Wawasee Veterans Day Program
By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews
SYRACUSE — It was nearly Easter Sunday in 2005 when Paula Fiscus went downstairs in her home to get on the treadmill for her morning workout. Her husband, Maj. Todd Fiscus, had been deployed to Afghanistan with the Indiana National Guard.
She noticed on the small ticker scrolling across the bottom of the TV four soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan. “I didn’t think anything of it, because there no was fighting,” she said.
But then a little bit later the doorbell rang and a man and woman had arrived to share the grim news her husband and three others had died when they drove over a land mine while scouting for training sites.
Paula shared these details and more as the guest speaker for the Veterans Day program at Wawasee High School. She was a teacher for several years at Milford School before transferring to the high school to teach language arts.
Fiscus shared some of the history of Veterans Day and noted according to the Department of Veterans Affairs there are currently 19 million veterans in the United States.
“We can learn a lot from our veterans and how ordinary people do extraordinary things,” she said.
War is real and personal, she said, “and not fought on Hollywood sets or in Xbox matches.” It also affects families deeply.
She said her husband did not go to Afghanistan to fight but instead to see what he could do to help children.
Immediately after his death she was “faced with the daunting task of finding a new way of life for my family,” including how to tell her 4 and 5 year old daughters their father would not be coming home.
Many people showed up offering help and comfort, but there were also seemingly endless requests from the news media asking questions and wanting photographs.
Fiscus said her husband and the three others killed “served proudly and loved their country.”
“Will you follow in the footsteps of our veterans and serve?” she said, whether that is in the community, in church, school or some other place.
Also included in the Veterans Day program was everyone reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, the veterans present briefly sharing some details about their service and the playing of taps to close out the program.