While most schools are closed on Veterans Day, Rocky Mount Academy students were on campus to celebrate our veterans this past Monday, November 11 with a parade. We have hosted this event since 2021, but the RMA community started honoring our veterans long before then. In the days before the pandemic, we hosted an annual ceremony where Middle School students shared patriotic essays and a guest speaker addressed the crowd. (One year, the keynote speaker was our own Dr. Casey Wells!) Regardless of how we’ve done it in the past or do it now, on Veterans Day, we at RMA celebrate the patriotism and dedication shown by our brave servicemen and women.

Although RMA recognizes all of our veterans, this year we especially want to recognize Irvin J. Price, who also goes by the nickname “Buck.” At almost 99 years old, Mr. Price has the distinction of being the oldest veteran to participate in our parade. A true local, he was born on December 21, 1925, in Edgecombe County and now lives in Tarboro. (If you make the drive from Rocky Mount to Tarboro on Highway 64, you can see a billboard featuring Mr. Price that promotes the Veterans Museum in Tarboro.) 

Mr. Price served our country in the Navy during World War II. He was stationed on a ship in the Atlantic for three years and did not come home on leave even once! He participated in D-Day–the invasion of Normandy, France, that paved the way for the Allies to win the war in Europe–and has been back to Normandy to celebrate twice now. 

Participating in several of our Veterans Day parades, Mr. Price truly loves the respect we show all our veterans by lining up around the school with American flags and waving to the passing veterans in their cars. It’s something he looks forward to every year, and we are so proud to offer him and all our veterans this opportunity to be recognized.