2008 Woodie Awards
Student Veterans: A disarming manner
Joel Cohen
Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Opinion
For most Terrapin fans at Saturday's rain-soaked football game against then-No. 16 North Carolina, the cannon blast at 3:15 p.m. meant game-time was rapidly approaching. But many of the hundreds of veterans I sat with had a different reaction. Most were initially shocked by the sound, until they remembered they were at a football game on their home turf.
A couple of minutes later, the veterans were escorted onto the field and honored on the JumboTron, receiving a standing ovation from the 46,113 fans at the game. There is no question that soldiers and veterans are given the utmost respect in today's society. But is enough done?
The 1960s brought action, but no respect. Returning veterans, both on this campus and throughout the United States, did not have a pleasant experience. Soldiers were not given the respect or the services they needed to successfully reintegrate into society. Brig. Gen. Christian Cowdery described it as a much different time - a time when the unpopular politics of the war were not separated from the men and women fighting the war.
He told me the "university [and society] wasn't active in support of veterans," adding that "you didn't wear your uniform back then." The university alumnus and captain of the 1972 Terrapin football team described a time when the university canceled finals one year and closed down the campus because of rioting, but not "joyous rioting - not for winning the ACC title or a great basketball win."
The university, and our society, seems to have learned its lesson.
When 23-year-old Laurissa Flowers first got to this university in January 2007 after serving four years of active duty in the Army, including service in Iraq, Germany and Fort Detrick, Md., she said the university didn't offer sufficient assistance for veterans. But in fall 2007, under the leadership of Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Warren Kelly, the university launched the Veterans Initiative in order to better address the needs of returning young veterans.
A couple of minutes later, the veterans were escorted onto the field and honored on the JumboTron, receiving a standing ovation from the 46,113 fans at the game. There is no question that soldiers and veterans are given the utmost respect in today's society. But is enough done?
The 1960s brought action, but no respect. Returning veterans, both on this campus and throughout the United States, did not have a pleasant experience. Soldiers were not given the respect or the services they needed to successfully reintegrate into society. Brig. Gen. Christian Cowdery described it as a much different time - a time when the unpopular politics of the war were not separated from the men and women fighting the war.
He told me the "university [and society] wasn't active in support of veterans," adding that "you didn't wear your uniform back then." The university alumnus and captain of the 1972 Terrapin football team described a time when the university canceled finals one year and closed down the campus because of rioting, but not "joyous rioting - not for winning the ACC title or a great basketball win."
The university, and our society, seems to have learned its lesson.
When 23-year-old Laurissa Flowers first got to this university in January 2007 after serving four years of active duty in the Army, including service in Iraq, Germany and Fort Detrick, Md., she said the university didn't offer sufficient assistance for veterans. But in fall 2007, under the leadership of Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Warren Kelly, the university launched the Veterans Initiative in order to better address the needs of returning young veterans.
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