Following the 10th anniversary of September 11 tragedy, MSSU joined a nationwide grass-roots effort to honor American service men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade. On Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, campus and community volunteers at more than 168 college and universities across the nation read the names of the 6,200-plus casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF), now called Operation New Dawn.
MSSU students, faculty, staff and community members honored the fallen heroes from Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. After a moment of silence, bag pipes played "Amazing Grace". The audience was addressed by veterans from several eras. Boy Scouts laid a wreath in honor of the fallen. East Middle School National Junior Honor Society and Student Council read more than 450 names.
The Remembrance Day National Roll Call is sponsored nationally by the Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Lt. Col. (Ret) Brett Morris, the National Roll Call coordinator, said, "We wanted to rally campus communities across the nation to send a powerful message to the troops currently serving that their peers have not forgotten their sacrifices, or those of the fallen."
"The reading of individual names is very poignant because it emphasizes the significance of each and every life lost," said Morris, a retired Army officer and the associate director for veterans affairs at Eastern Kentucky University. "Like the names inscribed at the new 9-11 Memorial in New York, each of the fallen deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice. There is no effort to raise money or promote individual programs. The event is simply to honor those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf."
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