Emory Veterans Day ceremony honors service throughout generations

Emory’s seventeenth annual Veterans Day ceremony started with the rhythmic sound of footsteps — 24 people marching as one.

Traditionally held on the Quad, this yr’s ceremony happened in Convocation Hall because of chilly climate. Inside, the exact steps took on a stately, acoustic resonance.

The processional Honor Guard — led by Andrew West, retired first sergeant of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and administrative committee lead for the Emory Veterans Employee Network — featured veterans from throughout the college and the Atlanta space, in addition to present Emory and Georgia Tech Army ROTC cadets and Morehouse College Navy ROTC midshipmen. They joined a standing-room-only viewers of people from Emory and past.

“It’s an honor to be here with all of you on this Veterans Day,” Interim Emory University President Leah Ward Sears advised the group. “To everyone who has served, I want to sincerely thank you for your sacrifice and for your dedication to defending and protecting our great country.”

Retired U.S. Army Major General Matthew D. Smith, government director of veterans’ initiatives at Emory, delivered opening remarks and mirrored on the historical past of the day. In 1918, he defined, preventing in World War I ended “on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.” A yr later, President Woodrow Wilson introduced Nov. 11 as “Armistice Day” in honor of those that served within the Great War. In 1954, Congress modified the identify to Veterans Day to acknowledge all members of the armed forces.

Sears shared her private connections to the vacation, beginning with being born on a U.S. Army base in Germany.

Her father served within the Army through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and her two brothers graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. Her father “believed in service not just as a slogan but as a way of life,” Sears mentioned.

“When I grew older, I started to see what it had given me,” she mentioned of her navy upbringing. “Respect for purpose, a sense of gratitude and a strong belief that we are at our best when we are serving something that is greater than ourselves.”

Sears added that she sees that ethos mirrored in Emory’s choices for veterans, from the myriad training alternatives to the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this yr.

“We must use education and research to honor our veterans,” she mentioned. “In our own very small way, we show our gratitude for their service by offering them meaningful opportunities.”

‘Why serve?’

During the keynote tackle for the ceremony, Hurl Taylor, a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War with 4 Emory levels, defined how he has benefitted from these very alternatives.

In May, he obtained a grasp’s in enterprise for navy veterans from Emory’s Goizueta Business School. At 86 years of age, it was the second time he was the oldest member of an Emory graduating class — the primary being 2016 when he accomplished a grasp’s of faith and public life at Candler School of Theology.

He added that it was a “profound honor” to talk on the ceremony. Looking to his proper at Sears, he mentioned that his household shared a deep connection along with her: Taylor’s daughter was born in the identical U.S. Army hospital as Sears in Heidelberg, Germany.

Taylor titled his speech “Why Serve?” and mirrored on the generations of navy expertise in his household.

As a five-year-old in 1943, he remembered eavesdropping on a dialog between his dad and mom — what he referred to as “big people’s business” — shortly after his father had been inducted into the U.S. Army throughout World War II.

He recalled his father saying he felt compelled to serve regardless of having young children at house. Fast ahead nearly 25 years, and Taylor discovered himself having the identical dialog together with his personal spouse through the Vietnam War.

“Why serve?” he requested once more.

“Well, here’s the answer: C-A-R-E, to care.” Taylor mentioned. “It’s what you care about and are interested in. My father was interested in making a better life for himself and for his family. He cared about his country. The same with me: I wanted a better life for my country and my family. I wanted things to improve.

“And because I cared,” he continued, “that’s why I served.”

A particular neighborhood

Cliffton Wells, a retired U.S. Air Force lab technician, mentioned he attended the ceremony and marched within the Honor Guard as a result of he’s happy with his 22 years of service.

“I am always looking for opportunities to represent the military because I loved it so much,” he mentioned.

Now an emergency supervisor at Emory University Hospital Midtown, Wells mentioned the teachings he discovered within the navy assist him every single day on the job.

“It lines up directly,” he mentioned. “We’re talking about exercising, planning, collaboration, networking. The military will provide you with discipline and a good work ethic. One thing they will teach you is how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

For Wells, the navy is a household custom. His grandfather served within the Navy, and his father and older brother served within the Air Force.

Wells mentioned {that a} coworker, additionally a veteran, advised him about Emory’s ceremony. Once he confirmed his uniform nonetheless match, Wells knew he needed to take part within the Honor Guard.

“Marching is always fun,” he mentioned. “Participating and representing is an honor, actually, because of the sacrifice that military members make.”

Emory senior Dylan Sanders, an Army cadet by means of Georgia Tech’s ROTC program, additionally marched with the Honor Guard. He is finding out historical past and Chinese and plans to pursue area artillery and navy intelligence after finishing ROTC.

Sanders loved assembly generations of present and former uniformed service members.

“I’ve participated in the Veterans Day ceremony at Emory every year I’ve been here,” he mentioned. “I think being an American is a great privilege and luxury in this world, so when I see those who served before me, it’s amazing to see their careers. It gives me a lot of pride, and I admire everybody who’s here.”

Married couple Albert Wright and Arthurine Williams-Wright had been there to satisfy different veterans.

“All veterans have a special relationship,” mentioned Wright, who served within the Vietnam War and earned a grasp’s diploma from Rollins School of Public Health in 2012. “We all served this country and lived through good times, bad times, hardships and being away from home.”

Wright is a retired Army chief warrant officer, and Williams-Wright is a retired officer of the Army Corps of Engineers.

They met within the navy whereas stationed in several German cities, Wright in Frankfurt and Williams-Wright in Stuttgart. As destiny would have it, they each attended a promotion celebration for a mutual buddy.

“It was a divine story,” Williams-Wright mentioned, “because 40 years later we are still celebrating each other as a veteran couple with two adult children.”

They every donned a white sailor cap representing the American Veterans Organization, a service group “where veterans help veterans,” Williams-Wright defined.

“I’m so glad I got an opportunity to hear [Hurl Taylor’s] message this morning,” she added. “He said, ‘We serve because we care.’ And I was very encouraged that I must keep on serving, because I really do care.”

Emory’s sources for veterans

Many sources can be found to veterans throughout Emory University.

The Yellow Ribbon program helps post-9/11 veterans by offering funding to complement academic bills past what is roofed by the G.I. Bill.  

Army or Air Force ROTC are choices for Emory undergraduate college students occupied with navy careers. The cross-enrollment settlement with Georgia Tech permits college students to finish their undergraduate levels at Emory and navy coaching at Georgia Tech.

Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing was chosen to take part within the Veteran Affairs Nursing Academic Partnership, an elite program by means of which undergraduate and graduate nursing college students acquire priceless coaching in offering high quality healthcare for our nation’s veterans.

Goizueta Business School provides an MBA program designed for veterans, which just lately celebrated its first graduating class. 

Veteran workers throughout Emory University are welcome to take part within the Emory Veterans Employee Network (EVEN), designed to advertise a way of belonging by Emory veterans by means of group, recognition, networking and sources.

The Emory Healthcare Veterans Program provides free, confidential psychological well being care to eligible post-9/11 veterans and repair members throughout the United States, no matter discharge standing, deployment historical past or size of service. The program, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, incorporates a two-week intensive outpatient remedy program addressing post-traumatic stress, traumatic mind damage, navy sexual trauma, nervousness and despair.

Photos by Avery Spalding, Emory Photo/Video