Saluda Trail Middle School students paid tribute to men and women in uniform on Wednesday with a Veterans Day celebration that included an online video chat between students and soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

Liz Hood, the school’s media specialist, organized the gathering using Google Hangouts. Soldiers from the S.C. National Guard 178th Combat Engineers watched the ceremony from overseas as the school band performed the “Star Spangled Banner” and the chorus sang “Proud to be an American.”

Students asked the soldiers about the weather in Afghanistan, what they are eating and what they were doing there.

“It was very touching on both ends,” Hood said.

It helped students understand that “we have so many freedoms in this country … because of the willingness of people to protect that freedom.

For the soldiers, “it was an energizing experience,” she said. “It was a little piece of home for them.”

Shawn Cetrone