Monday, November 13, 2006
Two ROTC cadets stood at parade rest, with their hands behind their backs, next to a lit lantern in front of the Vietnam War memorial on Memorial Drive.
Photo by Ryan McGeeney
Charlie Hobbs, Wichita freshman, follows his fellow ROTC cadets in a color guard ceremony on Friday. The presentation followed a formal retreat at the flagpole in front of Strong Hall, and preceeded an address by Marine Col. Dorothy Stover (Ret.) in celebration of Veterans' Day.
They snapped to attention as a car passed and stared stone faced into the distance. The cadets returned to parade rest and continued staring as the car drove away.
The cadets were part of a 24-hour vigil that began Friday evening at both the Vietnam and Korean war memorials. Cadets from all three branches of ROTC spent one-hour shifts guarding flames to honor military veterans.
Kyle Wamser, Henderson, Nev., junior, has guarded a flame the previous two years for Veterans Days and spent an hour guarding the flame again this year.
Wamser said he thought it was important to show those who came to the memorial that current ROTC students care about what their loved ones did.
“You’re there, people about to enter active duty,” Wamser said. “You’re there for the people who were there before you.”
» Veterans Day was first celebrated as Armistice Day in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as a holiday to celebrate the treaty that ended major hostilities in World War I.
» The treaty preceded the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war, by seven months and was signed on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
» According to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Web site, the original concept was to observe the holiday with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11 a.m.
» In 1938, an act of Congress officially made the day a legal holiday to honor World War I veterans. In 1954, after the mobilization of troops in World War II and Korea, the act was amended to change the holiday to Veterans Day to honor the veterans of all wars.
» A 1968 law required the holiday be celebrated on a Monday regardless of the date to guarantee three-day weekends for federal employees. Several veterans organizations and state legislatures opposed the change and in 1975 President Gerald Ford signed a law dictating the holiday be celebrated on its original date of Nov. 11.
Source: http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp
Events began on Friday with a formal flag retreat by all branches at the flagpole in front of Strong Hall.
The cadets then retired to Budig Hall to listen to retired Col. Dorothy Stover-Kendrick, a 30-year Marine Corps veteran. Stover-Kendrick spoke on the topic of leadership in the military.
Stover-Kendrick referenced classic leadership definitions by famous soldiers before offering her own definition to the cadets.
“Leadership is unselfishness,” she said. “It’s doing what must be done without conscious or unconscious thought or concern about how it will affect you.”
While she spoke, Stover-Kendrick shared the stage with a table accompanied by four empty chairs. The table represented the prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action who could not be present at the ceremony.
Kansan staff writer Nate McGinnis can be contacted at nmcginnis@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kristen Jarboe
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