College Honors Service Members This Veterans Day

• Lt. Col. Rafael A. Candelario '94, U.S. Marines
  
  Rafael Candelario, 3d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion Commander, found Davidson through the Davidson Love of Learning Class, led by Rev. Brenda Tapia. "The program staff, Davidson students of all backgrounds, showed me the importance of committing to a cause and following through. I liked the fact that Davidson let students be who they were, regardless of their background, ethnicity, religious or political. As a leader today, I tell all Marines and sailors I am fortunate enough to lead that their race, gender, religion, political or sexual orientation does not matter to me–I am here to serve. The faculty and leadership at Davidson, who took their personal time and energy to mentor, take care of, and really love me, provided an example of leadership that I hope my Marines and sailors see from me. Caring interpersonal leadership is a choice...it is hard and it takes time."

• LTC Tim Stroud, U.S. Army (Ret.)
  
  Pictured here with his wife, Stella, Stroud works today as assistant operations manager in Alvarez College Union, helping manage nearly 100 student workers: “You have to be able to work together as a team in order to execute your mission.”
  
  Other employee military veterans include Craig Mombert, Bob French, Frank “Sarge” LaForgia, Rodger Clark, Fuji Lozada, Robert Eudy and Frank Molinek.

• Col. Robert B. Lim, M.D. '91, U.S. Army Medical Corps
  
  "Davidson provided much more than a great education that prepared me for medical school. Davidson prepared me to handle combat and life in the military. Davidson taught me to be flexible and to use other means to solve the problems in front of me.  It helped me to lead and follow all kinds of soldiers. I've been deployed to the combat zone 6 times and each time I ran into another Davidson grad to help me through the time away from my family and make sure I did my job right. The possibilities are limitless for any Davidson student who joins the military, because Davidson will show you many ways to find an answer to your problem."

• Specialist John Christian, U.S. Army
  
  John Christian was a radar repair technician during the Vietnam War. He brings the same kind of exacting standards to his work as a construction project planner at the college. Education was key: “I served my country during a very difficult time, and I took advantage of the veteran educational benefits after service to finish my undergraduate studies on the GI Bill.”

• Capt. Jane Campbell '87, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
  
  Pictured in Afghanistan. “As [former Davidson dean of faculty] Dr. Frontis Johnston once said, ‘A Davidson education doesn't prepare you to do something, it enables you to do anything,’” said Campbell. “The critical thinking skills I learned at Davidson were essential to my military career. While our nation's military academies are fine educational institutions, we need to ensure that we are also educating the next generation of military leaders on the Davidson College campus.”

• Major David G. Taylor, Jr. ’91, U.S. Army: In Memoriam
  
  Taylor died Oct. 22, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. His was the first Iraq war death in the Davidson College alumni family. His Davidson classmate and fellow R.O.T.C. cadet Mike Peters, who called Taylor “an outstanding leader,” accompanied Taylor’s body home from Dover Air Force Base to North Carolina.

• Lt. Col. Jeremiah Parvin ’01, USAF
  
  Parvin, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor for service in Afghanistan, credits Davidson with shaping his military career: “I continually use the time management, critical analysis and writing skills to decipher large volumes of information to get at what's important. We are usually on short timelines to produce talking papers on various subjects to our senior leaders. They rely on the knowledge and expertise we provide to sometimes make strategic decisions.”

• Capt. Robert Cameron '67, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
  
  "I have had two two careers in fields of aviation, a profession seemingly far from my Davidson preparation focusing on English literature. Yet, it was the liberal education I gained here that led to my being able to comprehend the underlying values, risks, and logic in situations, to repeatedly mastering far different subject matter than any encountered in my academic settings, to being able to construct and deliver coherent analyses, and to staying grounded in the values that really matter and that have been expounded so well in the canon of our culture."

• ROTC Cadet Morgan French ’18
  
  Pictured here with her parents last summer after completing Advanced Camp in Fort Knox, Kentucky, French will get her first orders for postgraduate active duty on Nov. 17. She will be ready: “Tying things together across disciplines is really important. Learning how to meet the demands of the academic workload here, to really connect with people and to balance leadership in ROTC and in field hockey--for me, at Davidson, it has all come together.”

• LTC Grier Martin ’91, U.S. Army Reserve
  
  “Sometimes the path to peace lies through war. Sometimes that path will merely lead you to more war. The role of an institution like Davidson is to cultivate disciplined, intellectually rigorous minds capable of discerning the difference. If there are more wars to be fought, Davidson must be ready to have more names on memorials. To expect otherwise would be to deny its mission to nurture servant leaders. But my greatest hope is that Davidsonians will also continue to work for a world where war is not needed."  

• 134th Legal Operations Detachment, U.S. Army Reserve
  
  During a recent weekend drill for the 134th Legal Operations Detachment, U.S. Army Reserve, leadership quickly realized that Davidson grads had taken command!
  
  (l-r) LT Belal Elrahal ’11, LTC Grier Martin ’91, CPT David Palko ’09, CPT Ellie Morales ’07 and LTC Brad Wood (father of Owen Wood ’20).

Davidson College will honor our nation's veterans this weekend, beginning with a Davidson ROTC 100th anniversary celebration for current cadets and alumni veterans on Friday, Nov. 10, and followed by all veterans' special recognition during the Wildcat basketball game against Charleston Southern.

As part of "Military Appreciation Day," all active and retired military will receive a free ticket when presenting their military ID at the Athletics Box Office for the 7 p.m. game. The Athletics Department also will lead a salute to Wounded Warriors before the game.

Capt. Bob Cameron '67, U.S. Navy (Ret.) captain will deliver the keynote address at the Town of Davidson Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Davidson Town Hall (front steps).

Saturday evening beginning at 6 p.m., the brothers of Phi Delta Theta fraternity have partnered with the Town of Davidson on "Phi's for GI's Veterans Day Concert and Fair." The event, on campus at 112 Patterson Court, will raise money for the Support U.S. Armed Forces charity, and will feature a performance by country music artist Eric Lee Beddingfield.

Davidson salutes all veterans and active-duty military personnel, especially those who are members of the college community.

John Syme

josyme@davidson.edu

704-894-2523