Colorado State University to Honor the Fallen on Veterans Day, Nov. 11

Following the 10th anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, Colorado State University has joined a nationwide grassroots 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 100 colleges and universities across the nation will read the names of the 6,200-plus casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, now called Operation New Dawn.

Each campus participating in Remembrance Day National Roll Call will organize its own reading of names and will observe a simultaneous nationwide minute of silence at noon M.S.T. More than 175 schools in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have agreed to participate in the event.

Remembrance Day National Roll Call is sponsored nationally by the Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. NASPA is a 12,000-member association for the advancement, health, and sustainability of student affairs professionals. At the local level, this event is being sponsored by the CSU Student Veterans Organization, with the support of other CSU and community partners as part of a week of activities to express appreciation, gratitude and understanding about and for veterans in northern Colorado.

The reading of names will start at 9 a.m. on the Lory Student Center Plaza and take nearly eight hours to complete as readers announce the names in chronological order.

“The reading of individual names is very poignant because it emphasizes the significance of each and every life lost,” said Lt. Col. (Ret) Brett Morris, associate director for veterans affairs at Eastern Kentucky University and National Roll Call coordinator. “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.”

The National Roll Call is grateful to iCasualties.org for the steadfast recording of the fallen over the past 10 years, from which the names of the fallen have been derived.

For information about Roll Call events at Colorado State University, please contact CSU’s Adult Learner and Veteran Services Office at 491-3977 or ALVS_Staff@mail.colostate.edu.

For more information about the National Roll Call effort, contact Brett Morris at remembrancerollcall@gmail.com or visit va.eku.edu/rollcall for a list of participating schools.
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