A salute to veterans
The Veterans Day service began after the Bell Tower tolled 11 times, in keeping with the traditional timing from Armistice Day – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.
On a sunny morning under blue skies, about 80 people from the Carolina community gathered Tuesday between Phillips and Memorial halls to celebrate and thank those who have worn military uniforms – American veterans.
The Carolina Alumni Memorial in Memory of Those Lost in Military Service is a space on Cameron Avenue marked with low stone walls and quotes carved on the walkway and benches. A bronze Book of Names honors University alumni who were killed during wartime.
The Veterans Day service began after the Bell Tower tolled 11 times, in keeping with the traditional timing from Armistice Day – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.
After the posting of the colors by ROTC students carrying flags representing the United States, North Carolina and the branches of military service, a recorded version of the National Anthem played. Veterans and active duty military personnel saluted the flag while the rest put hands on hearts. Some showed their support of the military with small yellow ribbons on their lapels. One man wore a red poppy, a sign of remembrance dating back to World War I.
Midshipman Nancy Smith delivered the invocation, and Midshipman Ali Grass read a letter of thanks to veterans. Captain Douglas Wright introduced the keynote speaker as “one of our own” and welcomed him back to Chapel Hill.
Retired Admiral Clifford Sharpe, celebrating just his second Veterans Day out of uniform, laced his speech with quotes from Theodore Roosevelt, George Orwell and Gandhi.
His own words came from the heart and his experience in the Navy, the branch of service hosting this year’s celebration. “Our public generally holds its military in high regard,” Sharpe said. “And we learned from the Vietnam experience. Today, although some of our citizenship may oppose specific military action, they honor, respect and thank the men and women in uniform.”
Sharpe graciously extended honors of the day to those who serve in other ways.
“That culture of service of putting others before self is not the exclusive enclave of our military. It is a shared, inclusive space occupied by educators, policemen,” he paused briefly as a passing siren wailed, “right on cue – firemen and all forms of public servants.”
He charged the veterans and future veterans in the audience to make a difference in their community and to be seasoned voices of reason when the threat of war arises. Quoting retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sharpe said, “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”
The ceremony ended with veterans in the audience standing as the names of the conflicts they served in were read aloud, followed by a benediction.
Click here to learn more about a luncheon that will honor Carolina’s veterans on November 17.
