On November 10, 2021 at precisely 1100 the 24 hour Veterans Day Vigil began. During the vigil, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) cadets and Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (AROTC) cadets stood side by side in the Praying Hands Memorial for 48, 30 minute shifts. The cadets stood in silence as they honored and remembered the sacrifices of the service members who came before them.
Exactly one day later, the vigil guard was relieved and the annual Veterans Day Ceremony took place beside the Praying Hands Memorial at the University of Portland. The Veterans Day Ceremony is a long honored tradition at the University of Portland which gives everyone an opportunity to take a moment from their busy lives to truly pay respect to those who have help create this great nation that we all love. After a beautiful invocation by Brother Pablo, the ceremony began. One highlight that stood out from the event was the speech by retired Major General Chris Owens (United States Marine), who spoke to the fact that the decreased size of the military is not a bad thing; rather, it shows our progress towards a volunteer based force that does not rely on forced service.
*The original memorial was built by the University’s Class of 1948 and contained bricks inscribed with the names of the 69 University of Portland students killed in service during WWII. Later the memorial was expanded to include other wars and conflicts in which American service members and University of Portland students served, including World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars. The memorial contains the names of 80 University of Portland students who lost their lives in service to the country.