Mooresville Honors the Lost

With the introduction and installation of the new POW/MIA Chair of Honor, Mooresville High School joins the company of Lucas Oil Stadium, Corteva Coliseum, Fishers Event Center, and many more locations throughout the United States equipped with the Rolling Thunder Chair of Honor.

This new relic, located just inside the main entrance of the high school, is dedicated to the memory and honor of all POW/MIA victims. At the head of this project was Principal Wes Upton of Mooresville High School, and the organization Rolling Thunder.

The effort put into the construction and making of the chair was equal between both Rolling Thunder and Mooresville. The high school Construction and Trades class built the base of the chair as a project in class. Mooresville supplied the actual chair, but Rolling Thunder restored the chair and funded the new flags and new flag poles for the chair. Mooresville was able to decide what was written on the plaque, and Rolling Thunder makes and prints the text on the plaque. The chair itself is special. The chair used and refurbished for the project was found from the Mooresville superintendent’s office from the 1960s.

With a personal connection with the project, Principal Wes Upton was thrilled with not only the start of the project, but also the outcome. A deep family history in the military, including the passing of his father due to complications during service, made this project something more to him.

“As a community we are extremely proud of the people who served in our community,” Upton said.

While our staff members were happy with this Chair of Honor, so were the students of Mooresville. Senior Brayleigh White has a deep family history in the military. With her father serving in the Indiana National Guard, she understands what the chair means to the missing people of all wars. When she first walked into the building and saw it, all she could be was excited. Excited that the men and women of Mooresville were being honored more and more each year.

“I just like to respect that we have that. It’s great to see it here. I’m glad we’re honoring the people who are missing,” White said.

With the introduction of the Wall of Honor last year, Mooresville High School is making many efforts to show the community of Mooresville how important veterans truly are. Incorporation of the Construction and Trades class allows them to feel a part of this project, just as White said. Gavin Cross, a member of the Construction and Trades class, helped with the construction process of the chair’s base, said that at the start, the class didn’t quite understand the importance of the chair.

“It resembles more than a lot of people realize,” Cross said.

Once the construction class took grasp of the importance of the project, they got straight to work. They all knew that this needed to be a beautiful piece that would compliment the chair well. After realizing this, they decided the first attempt at the base wasn’t good enough, so they took two more days to perfect the base even more.

At the commencement for the Chair of Honor, a plethora of Rolling Thunder members attended, including Indiana Rolling Thunder Chapter 1 President, Mike Clark. During his speech, Clark addressed the significance of the chair here at Mooresville, and honored the 9 who have died and or are still missing from the Mooresville/Morgan Country area. The people lost are as listed: Eldridge W. Bowles, James A. Bowman, Lorene L. Burton, William E. Dow, Charles E. Glover, Raymond Kirkendoll, Dennis B. Lambert, Lorain H. Stockton, and Frank M. Wininger. All of these heroes were lost during WWII. Indiana has 1,493 POW/MIA victims from WWII, 167 in the Korean War, and 51 from the Vietnam War. 

At the beginning of the ceremony, the JROTC program at Mooresville presented the colors at the beginning, and the audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Mooresville’s JROTC program member John Wojciechowski, a sophomore who attended the ceremony, was very happy with the introduction of this new Chair of Honor. Just as others, he understood the importance this meant to the family members who have lost loved ones, and to the memory of those who were lost.

“It’s awesome they are putting that memorabilia,” Wojciechowski said.

Once the ceremony was complete, Rolling Thunder members from the audience gathered around the chair and took a group picture, although this wasn’t the first time Rolling Thunder member Buddy Burnside was inside Mooresville High School walls. Burnside graduated in 1969 and was extremely happy to see his alma mater bring this piece of history in.

Mooresville High School is honored to be a part of the 19 other locations with a POW/MIA Chair of Honor, and has hopes of a continued partnership with Rolling Thunder for the reaming future.