WWI Veteran, 94, Gets High School Diploma
World War I cost 94-year-old John Watson his high school diploma because he shipped out seven days before graduation.
Seventy-six years later, with a red rose pinned to his lapel and a smile on his face, Watson sat before a cheering crowd Thursday in his alma mater’s gymnasium clutching a long-overdue diploma and a framed photograph of himself at age 17.
“Good-looking guy,” he joked quietly to his daughter, Jean Watson, who has taught English at the school for 41 years and helped organize the surprise Veterans Day graduation for her father.
About 300 people turned out to honor Watson and mark the 75th anniversary of Armistice Day.
Watson enlisted in the Army on June 5, 1917. He was assigned to the 101st Ammunition Train and helped drive caissons by mule and horse to the front lines in France.
“They needed the Vermont boys who knew how to handle mules,” said Spaulding High School Principal William Sullivan, who presented Watson with the diploma Thursday.
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