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The fourth annual Veterans Awareness Week, honoring servicemen through storytelling, ceremony and fundraising, culminated this Friday with a Veteran’s Day reception at the Ford Alumni Center.
The reception was a product of Nontraditional Student Programs, the Veterans and Family Student Association, and the Oregon Humanities Center. It was hosted by DPS Director of Administrative Services David Landrum and featured keynote speaker Bob Welch, a Register-Guard columnist, former University adjunct professor and war novelist.
Welch has written three books in six years on WWII, including “American Nightingale,” the powerful story of Frances Slanger, a Polish Jew from Boston, who died serving in the Army Medical Corps, during an artillery barrage in Belgium.
Following Welch’s presentation, a scholarship award presentation was held. University law student Jeff Meray was one of five University students awarded a total of $29,000.
“I want to help people who can’t help themselves,” Meray said.
As a Tillman Military Scholarship University Partner, the University has been able to finance veterans like Meray, whose GI Bill benefits covered his undergrad work but not the advanced degree that he desired. The scholarship is part of a fund in remembrance of Pat Tillman, an Arizona Cardinals safety who enlisted and died under controversial circumstances in Afghanistan in 2004.
Meray, who served in the Navy in support of operations in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, is glad to have been rewarded for his service and said he will continue to contribute to society as a civilian.
“I thought the military would give me perspective and it did,” he said. “I have formed a stronger sense of public service because of it.”
Provided for the celebration was the Tuba Euphonium Ensemble, a group of 14 students from the School of Music and Dance, and a five-person Color Guard drill and ceremony detail from the University’s ROTC program.
Emily Farrell, senior in Environmental Studies and Combat Engineer cadet, volunteered to participate in the detail. Her sister is a medical officer in the military.
“This is a way to give something to those serving, those who can’t be here,” Farrel said. “People I know who graduated from ROTC at Oregon are all across the world now.”
Two other activities accompanied the Veteran’s Day Reception which went on throughout the day.

An event entitled the Remembrance Day National Roll Call, which took place in the EMU amphitheater from 9 a.m. to 6:15 p.m., consisted of volunteers reading the names of the 6,274 men and women of the American armed forces that have died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also beginning at 9 a.m. at the amphitheater, was a charity event entitled the Run for the Fallen. Hugging portions of the Ruth Bascom River Trail, the run was part of a national campaign which began in June 2008 and has seen participation by all branches of the military from coast to coast.
In the event, one dollar was donated for every mile run by a participant. The miles symbolize the spending related to service members killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Over 150,000 miles have been collectively run in remembrance of those fallen since 2008.
It is that sense of responsibility and sacrifice being reiterated throughout the day, and above all at the reception.
“I happen to hate war more than I’ve ever hated it,” Welch said in a parting reflection. “That’s one thing I learned in doing all this research. And I have more respect for the people who fight it than ever before. Today is not a celebration of war – it’s an honor to the people who fight those wars.”