Saluting the fallen

World War II veteran Harry Selling got choked up as he stood in front of a crowd of Newport Harbor High School students Friday and recalled how a woman gave him a bowl of potato soup and hugged him as he made his way, starving, and with one shoe, to a German prisoner of war camp in 1944.

“I don’t think I can finish this,” Selling said, as he fought back tears.

Selling, 88, is the sole survivor of his crew after the B-17 he was piloting was shot down near Berlin in September 1944.

“Freedom is not free,” Selling told students gathered to hear him speak in honor of Memorial Day. “It’s paid for with lives, injury and debt.”

For the past 15 years, Newport Harbor students have gathered before Memorial Day on the school’s track field to honor the school’s 37 alumni who have died serving in the U.S. military.

The event is a way to remind students of the true meaning of the holiday, said Newport Harbor Principal Michael Vossen.

“We know we have the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but a lot of that is looking at our watches and trying to beat holiday traffic,” Vossen said.

Newport Harbor juniors Maddie Beck and Andrianna Frinzi recited the names during the ceremony of former Newport Harbor students who have died in combat.

“It was really amazing to hear how many Newport Harbor students have given their lives and I was honored to read their names,” Andrianna said.

Local veteran and historian George Grupe, who helped organize the event, along with the Newport Harbor Student Political Action Committee, looked on as two Newport Beach police officers slowly lowered to half-staff the large American flag that waves over the school’s track field.

“The flag has feelings too,” Grupe said. “It likes to be lowered slowly because it likes to stay at the top of the mast, but when it goes up it likes to go up quickly.”