The NDSU Veterans Alliance Organization, known as VALOR, is scheduled to host a short ceremony in honor of Veterans Day on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 8:30 a.m. at the flag plaza near the south entrance of the Memorial Union. The ceremony will start inside the Memorial Union (near the coffee shop) and conclude at the flag plaza near the south entrance of the building.
The ceremony will include a welcome from retired U.S Air Force Major Jim Stoddard, VALOR veteran coordinating officer, and formal remarks from Laura Oster-Aaland, vice provost for student affairs and enrollment management.
The ceremony is open to the public and NDSU faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend.
“It is important for us to take this time to recognize those who are currently serving and those who have served in the military. In this small way, we let those who chose service to country know that we are grateful for the extraordinary commitment and bravery involved in that service. Their defense of our country’s ideals underpins our democracy,” said VALOR faculty liaison Carol Cwiak, associate professor of emergency management and disaster science, noting the ceremony returns to campus after a two-year hiatus due to COVID.
NDSU Army and Air Force ROTC cadets will be in formation during the ceremony and conduct a flag raising. Air Force ROTC Honor Guard Squadron Commander Abel Chaparro III and Cadet Battalion Commander Connor Crago will lead the effort. Chaparro is a mechanical engineering major with an aerospace studies minor from Granite Falls, Minnesota. Crago is a sociology major with homeland security and military science minors from Horace, North Dakota.
Zackary Carlson, an instrumental music education major and vocal music education minor from Blaine, Minnesota, is scheduled to play “Taps.”
For more information about the event or VALOR, contact Cwiak at carol.cwiak@ndsu.edu or 701-231-5847.
