30 Years Later, Freeport Awards Diploma
To A Vietnam Vet From Class Of 1973 |
Despite good grades, William Gales left Freeport High School in 1973 to serve
his country in the Vietnam War. More than 30 years later,
Gales will receive his high school diploma from Freeport
under an extension to the current diplomas for vets program enacted during
the past school year.
Operation
Recognition, a State Education Department
program that grants high school diplomas to veterans, was expanded to
include Vietnam veterans along with World War II and Korean War veterans.
This is the first diploma to be awarded by Freeport
to a Vietnam veteran under Operation Recognition.
Gales will receive his diploma Wednesday, September
27 from Freeport Superintendent of Schools Dr. Eric L. Eversley. The
newest Freeport H.S. graduate, previously a supervisor for a moving company,
wants to study at the New York
Culinary Institute. Gales grew up in Freeport,
and now lives in Hempstead. He is an ordained minister, and serves as
a chaplain at the Nassau County jail — where he himself had been
imprisoned during a 14-month low period in his life.
But
since then, he has come a long way back—and getting his high school
diploma is just the icing on the cake he’ll be expertly baking soon. |
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Vietnam veteran and Freeport High School graduate William Gales
proudly displays his new tee shirt and diploma, flanked by Freeport
Director of Adult and Continuing Education Estelle Weiss and Superintendent
of Schools Dr. Eric L. Eversley.
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