For 364 days a year, people of Raleigh and N.C . State view the Bell Tower as a symbol of scholarship, athletics and Wolfpack pride. But every year, ROTC cadets and cadre remember the Bell Tower’s original significance—a memorial dedicated to alumni veterans.
Air Force ROTC cadets held a candlelight vigil in honor of veterans Thursday night. Though doing so entailed staying up all night to stand outside in the cold, guards were eager to volunteer.
The vigil consisted of two ROTC uniformed guards watching over a candle, American flag and POW/MIA flag throughout the night of Nov. 10 and into the morning of Nov. 11, Veterans Day, with a formal change of guard every hour. ROTC cadre chose to display the POW/MIA flag at the vigil to honor and remember missing soldiers.
“The POW/MIA flag stands for prisoner of war, missing in action; it symbolizes all those who were captured and detained in war time and for all those who died,” Cadet Kyle Backhus , sophomore in German studies, said. Backhus organized cadet involvement of the event and scheduled students to guard the tower.
The event was solemn and elegant; the cadets on duty were in uniform, carrying ceremonial rifles, and guarded “locked on” – they stood at attention, kept their eyes 10 degrees above the horizon and looked straight ahead at all times. Cadet Scott Fitschen , a junior in business management, said the “locked on” mentality exemplified the meaning behind the ceremony.
“We are respecting the POW/ MIAs , we are not there to just goof off and stand around,” Fitschen said. “We want to show that we’re there for them and we’re showing respect for them. We want to be as disciplined, and as honorable, and as ‘chest-out-high’ and proud as we can be.”
Fitschen said the event was extremely well-received by the public and while they have an extra guard there as a security monitor, they have never needed it.
“Everybody around N.C . State seems to be extremely respectful of the vigil … you can see people stopping, paying attention, seeing what’s going on, which is really what it’s all about—the awareness of the situation,” Fitschen said.
Arnold Air Society, a professional service organization inside the Air Force ROTC program, coordinates the event every year and has been doing so since they were first formed 20 years ago.
“It’s a tremendous honor and they all volunteer,” Lt. Col. Chris Froeschner , commander of Air Force ROTC at NCSU , said.
Arnold Air Society could not physically provide enough volunteers to guard the tower, so with the help of Air Force cadets and Cadet Backhus , all shifts were full.
“…All but three slots were filled by the Arnold Air Society, so that’s probably 100 participation [on part of Arnold Air Society].”
This midnight vigil was one of the many ROTC events that took place Friday for Veterans Day. The candlelight vigil led into an annual two-mile Veterans Day run, organized this year by the Navy ROTC detachment but inclusive of every branch of ROTC. This year a special ceremony at the Bell Tower followed the run.
Thomas Stafford, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and an Army veteran, gave a speech at the service at the Bell Tower Friday morning, explaining the sentiment of unity and strength behind the tradition of the Veterans Day run.
“At N.C . State we honor veterans by coming together—Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines…” Stafford said.
All of Hillsborough Street was shut down as an estimated 400 people, including all of the ROTC branches, the baseball team, faculty and any civilian volunteers, “with the gumption to get up at 6 in the morning,” as Froeschner put it, ran following a color guard the circumference of the campus.
This year’s run and the ceremony that followed focused on honoring the alumni that died in World War I. Not only was Veterans Day originally known as Armistice Day, the armistice for World War I was signed the eleventh hour of the eleventh day.
In honor of this event, representatives from Raleigh’s sister city in France, Compiegne , attended the ceremony to memorialize to our World War I and World War II veterans, according to Froeschner . The signing of the World War I armistice took place right outside of Compiegne , and so the location of the ceremony was fitting, as the Bell Tower was dedicated as a memorial to the NCSU alumni who died in World War I.
The two cities then exchanged wreaths. Compiegne honored Raleigh with a wreath and one was presented at the same time in the sister city at a separate ceremony in France as an expression of gratitude and fraternity.
The ceremony ended with remarks from Stafford about the significance of the Bell Tower on campus.
“…As we stand next to the Bell Tower, I want to remind all of us that today we stand on a sacred place,” Stafford said.
