Honoring those who served
The University of Idaho reflects on its military history in wreath-laying ceremony Thursday
On an overcast Thursday morning, University of Idaho ROTC members prepared for the annual Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony honoring those who have served in the United States armed forces.
Members from each branch of the ROTC program stood off to the side as veterans gathered to watch the event.
Nearby, on the Administration Building lawn, 318 flags were in neat rows, one for each UI alumni who died fighting for the United States. There was a table with an empty place setting for those missing in action and prisoners of war.
“Our university has a rich history, military history, and veterans have played an ongoing and significant role in the making of the U of I a special place,” University of Idaho President Scott Green said in prepared remarks at the ceremony.
Five years after the University of Idaho was founded, military training began at the university when Second Lt. E.R. Chrisman became the first professor of military science and tactics. He would serve at UI for the next 40 years. It was in May of 1898 when 39 of the 248 students at the University of Idaho volunteered in the Spanish-American War, the largest percentage of student volunteers from any university in the United States.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to all that have served and those that are currently serving in the armed forces.” Green said. “I know I speak to the entire Vandal family when I thank our veterans in the community, the faculty, the staff, and the students who’ve served our military and to their families who make enormous sacrifices for our country.”
Green read from former UI President Ernest H. Lindley’s 1920 yearbook entry after thanking the veterans who served.
“They do not wait for others,” Green read. “They gave themselves properly and wholeheartedly to the cause. The history of war is rife with achievements of the college man of the East and South and North and West. Among these the men of Idaho maintain the high traditions of their alma mater, as in the Spanish American War, University of Idaho contributed an overwhelming proportion of her manpower to the army.”
Remarks were given by Green and Capt. Price Lockard, the commander of the Navy ROTC programs at both UI and Washington State University. Lockard earned his Naval Aviator wings in 1998 and is a UI alumnus.
“(Today) is an opportunity to express our gratitude to veterans’ families to recognize the hardships they’ve endured on the homefront as they’ve supported their servicemen, husbands, mothers and brothers deployed downrange to serve in harm’s way,” Lockard said. “We can honor our veterans by reflecting on what we have.”
Nelson can be reached at knelson@dnews.com.
