EMOTIONS RUN HIGH AT RALLY BY STUDENTS

SCOTT CITY -- Students at Scott City High School were moved, some to tears, during a Thursday morning rally in support of American troops serving in the Persian Gulf war.

Students, teachers and administrators, as well as some members of the community, honored soldiers who had been students at the high school, and who are now part of Operation Desert Storm.

"It's very emotional," said Leatha Edmondson, a senior whose fiance, Jason Sparks, was sent to the gulf Jan. 11. Sparks, 20, attended the high school.

"I get a letter about every week," said Edmondson. "He's ready to come home."

Another senior, Tonya Taylor, broke into tears as she spoke in front of her fellow students about the effects of war. She talked of how elated the entire nation would be when the troops come home. But before that happens, there will be the hard times, she said. Taylor's brother-in-law, Donald Cobb, is serving in the gulf.

She said she talks to her sister, Teresa Cobb, who lives in Columbia, on the phone almost every day. Like her sister who received regional media attention last week when she pleaded with a group of protesters in Columbia to stop protesting against the war and show support for the troops serving there Taylor believes the troops need to know that the American people are behind them.

"I pretty much stand with my sister on that," she said. "I want to make sure the level of support doesn't die down."

Ken McManaman, a Cape Girardeau attorney and active member of the Naval Reserve, spoke to the crowd of about 250.

"This is a time that is going to test each one of our souls," McManaman said. "It's going to show what the United States is truly made of."

McManaman said the gulf war will change the world as well as the United States, just as, he said, the Vietnam War changed America and the world's view of our country.

He said the United States' lack of persistence in the Vietnam War was made evident to the entire country by the number of people in this country who protested against the war.

As a member of the Naval Reserve at that time, McManaman said he remembers being spit upon in a Rhode Island airport "simply because I made the decision to serve my country."

He said people who are against the war should not protest it, as some are doing now.

"Now is not the time to try and publicly express dissatisfaction with the war," he said, adding that Iraqi leaders view protesting as a national weakness. "We must publicly project our patriotism, both here and abroad."

McManaman called Saddam Hussein "the equivalent of Adolf Hitler." He said most Americans don't understand what Hussein has done to people in other nations, as well as to people of his own country.

He said the U.S., as the "only real super power left in the world," was right to lead in the defense of Kuwait.

"We, as Americans, have never been in a position that we could lose our country," he said. "But if we did, we would want someone to come to our aid."

David Crews, a senior whose brother, Donald, is among the troops in the gulf, said: "A lot of the younger kids say they don't understand the war. I think it's important that they know."

Crews, whose mother also attended the rally, said he enlisted in the Marine Corps in October. He'll be sent to boot camp in August.

"I guess (the rally) really made me think of what I got myself into," he said. "I'm ready to go."

At the end of the rally, a patriotic song was played while everyone stood. Many were crying.

Principal David Fuemmeler said the rally turned out to be more emotional for some than he had anticipated. "I didn't realize how deeply this effects us," he said. "There are more students here with personal ties to the gulf than I thought."

Fuemmeler said 16 former students of the school are now serving with U.S. forces in the gulf war.