The Vicksburg Warren School District has done a lot of great things in the past few years. From Leader in Me and Ford Next Generation Learning to the introduction of career academies and talks of massive facility upgrades.

A small ceremony at Thursday night’s meeting of the Board of Trustees may be one of the best things the board and superintendent Chad Shealy have done though.

During the meeting of the Board of Trustees Thursday, World War II veterans Herbert Jackson, 100, and Robert Joseph Jefferson, 95, were presented with honorary high school diplomas as both joined the U.S. Army before completing high school.

Jackson served in the U.S. Army from 1940 until 1945 and worked for the Ford Motor Company Assembly plant in California for 30 years.

Jefferson served in the U.S. Army from 1943 until 1945. He is a retired mail carrier and worked at W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home.

Shealy said of the ceremony, “Of all the diplomas I’ve ever handed out that was definitely the most remarkable. Rarely do you get the opportunity to honor people who have honored you. To have two gentlemen, 95 and 100 years old, to be able to give them that diploma was something very special I will remember the rest of my life.”

The ceremony was organized by board member Alonzo Stevens who is a member of American Legion Post 213 along with Jackson and Jefferson.

“Those guys with no hatred just fought for their country and loved their country. After all these years to still have that love to their country, after all these years I think the least we can do is say thank you,” Stevens said.

The importance of this ceremony to Jefferson, Jackson and their families was clear.

“One of the things daddy always strived on with all the children was getting your education and this culminates what he was talking about and his diploma will sit on the shelf with the rest of ours now,” Jefferson’s son Anthony Lewis said.

The ceremony may have been small, but the gesture was huge. Thank you to the VWSD board of trustees for honoring these two American patriots.