More than 100 ROTC cadets and midshipmen will assemble in dress uniforms at 11 a.m. Nov. 11 for the annual Veteran’s Day ceremony at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
More than 100 ROTC cadets and midshipmen will assemble in dress uniforms at 11 a.m. Nov. 11 for the annual Veteran’s Day ceremony at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The free public ceremony will be outdoors at the Carolina Alumni Memorial in Memory of Those Lost in Military Service on Cameron Avenue. The memorial honors University alumni killed during wartime, from the Civil War to the Gulf War.
A color guard representing all three UNC ROTC programs – Air Force, Naval/Marine and Army– will assemble outside Gerrard Hall at 10:40 a.m. before presenting the colors. Veterans will be asked to stand and be recognized as the conflict in which they served is named.
Maj. Gen. Richard B. Goetze Jr., Ph.D., of Arlington, Va., retired from the Air Force after 30 years, will speak. Goetze flew more than 1,200 hours on 280 combat missions over Vietnam. He worked with the Strategic Air Command, for which he developed and maintained the national strategic nuclear war plan, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since retiring in 1989, Goetze has worked with private and public entities, including serving as president of the College of Aeronautics in New York City.
Members of the University and local communities, including veterans, are invited to attend. Limited parking is available in town pay lots off Rosemary Street. Attendees are invited to a reception after the ceremony.
The Air Force ROTC Unit will sponsor this year’s ceremony, organized by AFROTC Cadet Steve Quinn, a senior from Fayetteville. Additional sponsors will be the UNC College of Arts and Sciences and its curriculum in peace, war and defense.
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, falls on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the armistice signing by the Allies and the Germans in 1918 that ended World War I. For more information about the UNC ceremony, call the aerospace studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences at (919) 962-2074.
Air Force ROTC Web site: http://afrotc.unc.edu/
Caption: Cadets present the colors at last year’s Veterans’ Day ceremony at UNC.
Aerospace studies department contact: Lt. Steve Klukovich, (919) 962-2074
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589