students commemorate veterans on campus
Joe Douglas
– Jr. Copy Editor –
It was 1971 in Vietnam. Eddy Dillard and 11 other members of his special forces unit were on an assassination mission. They arrived at the target location and burst in with rifles and plenty of ammunition. Guns fired in the damp building.
“Twelve of us went in – two out,” Dillard said. Only he and his buddy managed to escape death. The battle resolved only moments after they entered. They trekked through the Vietnam forests for two weeks, bleeding and carrying each other through the foreign, dense foliage. Four rounds in Dillard’s left foot made walking painful, and his friend’s body was in an even worse condition.
“We got our mark,” Dillard said with a grin.
Dillard, STLCC-Meramec student, is one of many veterans honored on campus and around the world on Nov. 11: Veteran’s day.
At 7:45 a.m., Nov. 11, the flag rose to half mast to honor veterans across the nation, and to also remember those killed in the Fort Hood shooting on Nov. 5. Students, faculty, staff and volunteers made their salute.
The same day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., students, faculty and staff, some of which were veterans, met in Business Administration Room 105 to listen to speakers, music, and participate in an open forum for veterans to befriend each other and discuss their experiences. Speaker Gregory H. Campbell, program manager of the Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Care Management Program, spoke about his program, which is designed for war veterans trying to readjust to society after leaving the battlefield. “[Meramec] is a popular destination for veterans…” said Michael Cundiff, Ph.D., manager of admissions and records at Clark Hall. “At any one time, there are hundreds of veterans going to school here at a time.”
Although many veterans attend Meramec at a time, veterans themselves aren’t very visible on campus, and there is no club or campus-based organization designed for them.
“The college would be welcoming of a veteran’s group on campus, and… there are a lot of staff members willing to support it,” Cundiff said.
Besides managing admission and records, Cundiff leads orientations for war veterans applying to Meramec approximately every other day. Each orientation lasts an hour, where Cundiff introduces the Chapter 30 and Chapter 33 Montgomery GI Bill, pieces of financial support to reward service men and women. The GI Bill can cover up to 100 percent of tuition and college fees, $1000 a year on school books, provide a basic allowance for housing, and a one-time $500 stipend to individuals relocating from highly rural areas.
“The majority of people who come to us are 100 percent eligible,” Cundiff said.
In addition, from Nov. 9 to Nov. 13 on the north wall of the Student Center Commons, a “wall of honor” was decorated by notes from people who wished to share their hearts and hopes with soldiers currently serving or soldiers who already served.
“If we didn’t do what we’d done, Vietnam would still be going on,” Dillard said. “We needed to be there, just like we need to be in Iraq.”
Veterans Week closed with an outreach luncheon on 12 p.m., on Nov. 13 in Business Administration Room 105.
