Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.āMississippi State is honoring World War II veterans, including a number of former students who gave all they had to defend freedom around the world in the early 1940s.
The university unveiled a new WWII monument outside Nusz Hall, home of the G.V. āSonnyā Montgomery Center for Americaās Veterans on campus during a formal ceremony Monday [Oct. 2].
Ļć½¶Ö±²„President Mark E. Keenum said the monument dedication is one way for the university to say āthank youā to veterans and all who have served. While the university already has some historic markers commemorating veterans, additional monuments honoring U.S. veterans of other wars also are being planned.
Keenum recalled viewing, as a child, the Purple Heart which his great grandmother kept in her home after it was awarded to his great uncle, Alvin Jeffords, who was killed during WWII.
āI canāt imagine as a parent sending my teenage son off to war and him not coming backāthe pain and the hurt that I know she felt from that. But he gave his life and all of his future yearsādecades of life and his future family that he most certainly would have hadāto defend this nation and the freedoms that we so frequently take for granted,ā Keenum said. āI recognize and realize the suffering and sacrifice thatās involved in defending this nation.ā
Keenum recognized current service members who are committed to answer the call for āwhatever it may be,ā and thanked other veterans attending the dedication.
Ļć½¶Ö±²„Vice President for Strategic Communications Sid Salter also represented families of WWII veterans during the program and shared memories of his late father, Leo Salter, who survived D-Day at the Battle of Normandy, where many close comrades died in high numbers.
āWhen Dec. 7, 1941 transpired, he felt the need, because of his connections to Mississippi Stateāwe still were somewhat of a military school back thenāhe felt the need to enlist and serve and to respond to this attack on our country,ā Salter said of his father.
He said for much of the war, his father, who was part of the Signal Corps, enjoyed relative safety but that changed during what he called āthe most terrifying ride of his lifeā in approaching Normandy for combat. His comrade was killed right beside him almost immediately, but Salter said his father continued toward the cliffs overlooking Normandy Beach.
āOn that day, 2,600 Americans lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy. My father survived,ā he said describing the unimaginably difficult mortal combat that ensued that day.
Salter said 16,000,000 American veterans served during WWII, and about 119,000 of them are left in the U.S. today, with an average age now of 99. About 910 remain in Mississippi.
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