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To mark Veterans Day, �����鶹 is hosting a series of events, exhibitions, and ceremonies this week to honor and thank military service members.

They include the tolling of the Baker Tower bells at the eleventh hour of Nov. 11; a  exhibit documenting �����鶹’s service members from the founding of the college to the present; and a flag raising at dawn Friday, followed by a five-mile run dedicated to President Emeritus James Wright, a Marine Corps veteran who died last month at his Hanover home at 83.

Ryan Irving ’24, president of the �����鶹 Student Veterans Association, says Veterans Day offers a chance to highlight the contribution of veterans to the academic and cultural community of the College, and for the community to say “thank you.”

“The student veterans community at �����鶹 represents all kinds of backgrounds and human experiences that we are able to share with the �����鶹 community. And on the flip side of that, people with those experiences learn a lot from other students at �����鶹,” Irving says.

Official events on Friday, Nov. 11, start at 6:30 a.m. on the Green with Jason Mosel, a network engineer for Information Technology and Consulting and coordinator of the �����鶹 Veterans Employee Resource Network, raising the American flag in honor of Veterans Day and Wright’s commitment to �����鶹’s veterans.

Mosel is inviting community members to join him on a five-mile run around campus dedicated to Wright. For Mosel, a Marine Corps veteran, the community run will be the final lap of a 100-mile run that starts at Moosilauke Lodge at 5 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10.

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Jason Mosel during his 2020 run. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)

Mosel, an ultra marathoner, ran 100 miles around the �����鶹 campus and surrounding area concluding on the Green on Veterans Day 2020. He says both runs were conceived as a way to show solidarity for, and raise awareness about, veterans in the community. Mosel’s run can be  through a GPS app.

For those who served, returning to civilian life can often leave them feeling isolated and detached, Mosel says.

“One of the biggest things we are trying to do is get the word out that there’s a community of people at �����鶹. And as you start to meet people, and you realize this person was in Vietnam, this person is a Marine who served two tours in Iraq, this person is married to someone or has a child that served, you start to build that community.”

In addition, information about , the mindfulness and well-being app being offered to faculty, students, and staff, as well as local resources available for the veteran community, will be available on the �����鶹 Green, adjacent to the flags.

on Thursday will be holding a with Maj. Gen. Mark Anarumo, the president of Norwich University, at 12:15 p.m. in Haldeman 041. The conversation is co-sponsored by the and will be moderated by and. 

The Office of Human Resources is sponsoring a breakfast at 8 a.m. Friday to honor the community’s veterans at the Class of 1953 Commons North Dining Hall. The breakfast is open to �����鶹 community veterans, families, faculty, and staff. .

Veterans Day events conclude at sundown Friday with the retreat and drill ceremony conducted by the  at the campus flagpoles on the Green starting at 5:15 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Other events throughout the week include a panel discussion, “Critical Dialogues: Experiences of Student Veterans,” on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 3:15 p.m. in Baker 102. The event is sponsored by the �����鶹 Center for the Advancement of Learning and .

Student undergraduate and professional school veterans have organized visits to Hanover High School classes and Veterans Day events on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

And the special exhibit, “,” curated by Irving, is on display in Rauner’s Class of 1965 Galleries. On display through Dec. 3, the exhibit uses archival collections to explore �����鶹’s historic involvement in the country’s major conflicts.

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(Courtesy of Rauner Special Collections Library) 

The display begins with a letter from George Washington to Joseph Johnson, the son-in-law of Samson Occom, asking him to relay a message to the Iroquois Confederacy asking for their neutrality in the Revolutionary War. The final display includes military awards, medals, uniform patches and other pieces on loan from current members of the Student Veterans Association.

There are artifacts and documents illustrating the trench network dug in Memorial Field for trench warfare training of �����鶹 World War I recruits; documents and photos of the World War II Navy officer training program at the College; and soldiers’ letters paired with newspaper accounts of the anti-war movement on campus during the Vietnam War.

After acknowledging the unrest from that period, Irving concludes his written commentary on the exhibit, “However, in the early years of James Wright’s presidency, and because his influence at a national level, �����鶹 was afforded the opportunity to support the war effort in a new way: by welcoming veterans to campus as students, along with the wealth of experience and diversity that they brought with them.”

Irving says he was able to consult with Wright about the exhibit earlier this year. Wright’s contribution to veterans’ access to higher education—not only at �����鶹 but at colleges throughout the country with his work on the new GI Bill— cannot be overstated, Irving says.

“I’ve said this probably a hundred times. He was our hero, but he’s a hero to all veterans. His compassion and care was always present.”

For more information visit the  page.