Honoring All Who Served

St. Paul’s Episcopal School takes pride in honoring our Veterans and active duty military members who have sacrificed for our freedom. The school held its annual Veterans Day assembly on Friday, November 11th in the E.E. Delaney Memorial Stadium. Students and faculty members greeted crowds of parents, grandparents, veterans, and active duty military members.

The Veterans Day program began with a welcome from SGA President, Matt Browning, and prayer led by Junior Class Chaplain, Lauren Parker. The colors were presented by the St. Paul’s Boy Scout Troop 147, and the Chamber Choir exuberantly sang the National Anthem. A Veterans Day reflection was read by Junior Class Secretary, Ashley Park. Essays and poems were read by grade level winners William Wood (2nd Grade), Louise Williams (6th Grade), and Reese Flotte (11th Grade), followed by the 2nd grade’s sign language presentation of “You’re A Grand Old Flag.”

St. Paul’s alumnus Todd Oliver ’01 was the guest speaker. Major Todd Oliver was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. After graduating from St. Paul’s Episcopal School in 2001, he attended Birmingham-Southern College where he majored in Business Administration. After graduating in 2006, he applied for and was accepted to Officer Candidate Course 195.

Major Oliver attended Officer Candidate School in the summer of 2007, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on August 10, 2007. He reported August 19th to The Basic School where he was assigned to Fox Company from August until March. After completing The Basic School, he reported to Field Artillery Officer Basic Course in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. 2nd Lieutenant Oliver completed the FAOBC in 2009, and soon afterwards deployed to the Nimruz Province of Afghanistan with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task

Force Afghanistan as a High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems Platoon Commander in support of OEF. He again deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 with 1st Battalion 10th Marines as part of a composite artillery battalion.

Upon his return, Captain Oliver was assigned as the Fire Direction Officer/Assistant Operations Officer for 2/14 where he served for two years. In September 2013, he reported to Mike Battery 3/14 where he served as Guns Platoon Commander as well as Forward Observer for two years. Upon his return to 2/14 Captain Oliver served as the Executive Officer for Kilo Battery. Upon his promotion to Major, he returned to HQ 2/14 where he served as the HIMARS Planner for the Battalion. Major Oliver was then assigned to command Kilo Battery 2/14. During his command, he successfully deployed a platoon to Afghanistan in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He was then assigned the billet of Future Operations Officer for 14th Marine Regiment.

Major Oliver’s current assignment is the Operations Officer for 2/14 where in the last year he has deployed two batteries to Okinawa in support of the Unit Deployment Program. Major Oliver’s personal decorations include the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal. He is a graduate of Expeditionary Warfare School as well as Command and Staff College. In his civilian career, he works for Budweiser-Busch Distributing in Mobile, Alabama. He and his wife Maggie live in Mobile, Alabama.

To close the program, “TAPS” was played by St. Paul’s students Gianna Estrada and Virginia Merrick, and the assembly dismissed following Dr. Brian Doyle’s rendition of “Amazing Grace” performed on the bagpipes.