Veterans Day speaker spent 23 years in military

Tom Bercher had dual roles in Friday morning’s Veterans Day program at Greybull Middle School.
Normally the bagpiper, a role he’s played since moving to Big Horn County in 2013, Bercher was invited to speak this year and he shared some of his experiences with middle and high school students who filled one side of the GMS Gym.
He said he joined the military in 1983, right out of high school.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to do something other than what I was doing at the time,” he said. “I’d already taken the military entrance exam and found out that I could join the infantry and get $8,000.  In 1983, $8,000 seemed like a lot of money, so I joined the infantry.