Syracuse University Celebrates Veterans Day Syracuse University Celebrates Veterans Day

Madeline McDermott: “O’er the land and of the free and the home of the brave.”

Cole Kirst: Syracuse University honored Veterans Day with a celebration on campus at the National Veterans Resource Center. Former Military Service members and Syracuse alumni including class of 1972 Gary Ginsburg stood up honoring the military branch in which they served.

Gary Ginsburg: “I graduated in 72 and about a year or two later I began serving in the United States Army and I served in the states, overseas for 31, 32 years.”

Kirst: “Syracuse University has a tradition of military service.”

Ginsburg: “A legacy going back one hundred years and Chancellor Tully in the 1940’s supporting legislation helping returning veterans from world war II including my Dad. And the veterans institute here has helped reconnect me with the university.”

Kirst: For Syracuse University Class of 1997 Dwayne Murray, today was his first veterans day without serving in active duty.

Dwayne Murray: “Here as an undergraduate and then served in the military like I said, twenty-five years, three months and two days, and then come back as a veteran so it’s my first veterans day, it’s kind of surreal.”

Kirst: To top the ceremony, the Syracuse University singers performed America the Beautiful. Honoring all that have served and continue to serve our country. On Veterans Day in Syracuse, Cole Kirst… N-C-C News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Syracuse University Veterans Day Ceremony was held Friday, November 11, 2022 in the National Veterans Resource Center. A day dedicated to honor the ones who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. 

Gary Ginsburg, a former Syracuse University student, was present at the ceremony. A graduate of Newhouse studying liberal arts, Gary made the decision to enlist into the military a year or so after his graduation. He served for over thirty years. He said one key attribute that allowed him to succeed in the military and at Syracuse was his ability to listen.

“I always listen and learn,” Ginsburg said. “The seven Army core values helped me stay focused and hopefully go in the right direction even as a civilian. Loyalty, honor, duty, selfless service, personal courage, loyalty and respect, I try to live by that even as a civilian.”

Deputy Director of Syracuse University’s Office of Veteran & Military Affairs, Dwayne Murray said his journey as an undergraduate at Syracuse to serving twenty five years in the military and then coming back to Syracuse as a veteran is surreal. However, if there is one value that he tries to live by each day, it is courage.

“If I had to pick one, courage, personal courage,” Murray said. “Now the challenge for me is what does that look like as a civilian?”

As each branch of the U.S military was honored at the ceremony by the playing of the specific medley, veterans stood in honor of their service, applause echoing throughout.

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