NC State University held numerous ceremonies throughout the day on Friday, marking the eve of the Veterans Day holiday on November 11.
Beginning at 5:45 a.m. Friday at the Belltower members of all three branches of ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), on campus conducted a joint two-mile run through campus followed by a ceremony and vigil at the Belltower.
The ceremony featured guest speaker Douglas Morton, an NC State alumnus and retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy having served in the Civil Engineer Corps and now NC State’s associate vice chancellor for facilities.
Beginning at 8 p.m. Friday through Saturday morning, cadets in the NC State Air Force ROTC Program and Arnold Air Society, a professional honorary service organization for members of the Air Force ROTC, conducted a spotlight supported honor guard vigil under the Belltower in formal service uniforms to remember fallen service members and prisoners of war and those missing in action.
Will Gothard, a third-year studying aerospace engineering and director of operations for the Arnold Air Society, acted as a safety spotter for the vigil. Gothard spoke on the importance of raising awareness during the vigil.
“This is a tradition that we’ve had since, as far as we can tell, the 70s — and possibly before then — that Arnold Air Society does,” Gothard said. “Part of our mission is to raise awareness for prisoners of war and those who have been missing in action so this is part of what we do as a tribute to them during Veterans Day, putting two living bodies out here in the cold all night.”
The vigil was in keeping with the construction purpose of the Belltower, a115-foot monument constructed to honor NC State alumni killed in World War I.
“This is one of our favorite traditions in the Arnold Air Society, this is what it’s all about, this is what we do, it’s not about us,” said Ryan Stein, a third-year studying mechanical engineering and commander of the Arnold Air Society, who also acted as a safety spotter at the Belltower vigil. “It’s about those who have gone before us, it’s kind of interesting because we’ll get thanked for our service but we haven’t done anything yet so we’re just trying to thank those who have gone before us for their service.”
Throughout the night, passing pedestrians on campus and Hillsborough Street stopped to notice the ceremony and the guards standing the vigil rotated out by the hour until 6 a.m. Saturday.
The ceremonies were largely coordinated through the university’s ROTC programs. Land grant universities like NC State are particularly noted for their associations with the programs and NC State offers Army, Air Force and Navy (including Marine option) variants.
“This is not going to die anytime soon, I don’t believe,” Stein said on the future of the vigil.
