Park View High School English teacher George Barton will be the Patriots’ honorary captain for their football game with Freedom High School on Friday, November 6th.

Barton will be recognized at the coin toss with the officials and team captains as part of Veterans Night.

All veterans will be admitted free to the game. At the beginning of the game, all veterans in attendance will be recognized on the field. The ceremony will begin at 7:15 p.m. with the game at 7:30.

The United States Marine Corps local recruiting station will be in attendance and will display a genuine military hummer and a blow-up animation drill sergeant. The local Sterling VFW and American Legion post members also will be in attendance. Every fan entering the game will be given a miniature American flag to wave during the ceremony in honor of our veterans.

Barton is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. He entered the Army immediately after graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. During his tour of duty he was wounded three times, but returned to his unit each time. However, his fourth and fifth wounds, suffered in the same battle, caused him to be evacuated to the United States. He remained in the service for another year, but was finally retired as a disabled veteran with the rank of captain.

Barton has been awarded four Purple Hearts and the Silver Star for gallantry in action. The Silver Star is the third-highest award behind the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. In addition, he was awarded two Bronze Stars with “V” for valor, a special award of the Air Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal with three Battle Stars, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge and the Pathfinder Badge.

Barton is in his seventh year of teaching at Park View where he was named Teacher of the Year in 2005 after only three years of teaching. He wears a small Purple Heart pin every day to remind him and others of the nearly 60,000 men and women whose names are inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., and who received their Purple Heart after their death.

via Loudoun County Public Schools.