Celebrating Veterans Day

As America pays tribute to the men and women of the military on Veterans Day, Northwestern University celebrates with a campus ceremony led by the Naval ROTC, one of the nation’s oldest ROTC units, and a Kellogg event to honor those who have served in the armed forces.

This year, Northwestern has 222 veterans enrolled in academic programs throughout the University. In addition, the University has 43 active duty members of the armed services enrolled, including Navy SEAL Tom Hruby who is on the football team.

Naval ROTC

The Naval ROTC program will begin Veterans Day with a special public observance at the site of a memorial rock topped with a plaque that lists the names of NROTC alumni who died in World War II and the Vietnam War. The rock is located on a small green between Norris University Center and University Library.

Northwestern’s Naval ROTC program is one of the oldest programs in the country. It was established in 1926 and has graduated officers into the Navy and Marines continuously since that time, including Rear Admiral Lisa Franchetti. A 1985 Medill graduate, Franchetti is the first woman to serve as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea and one of fewer than 40 female admirals in the U.S. Navy.

Kellogg celebration

The Kellogg School of Management will host a Veterans Day celebration for Kellogg faculty, students and administrators to thank those who have served. Dean Sally Blount and the president of the Kellogg Veterans Association will deliver remarks along with U.S. Army Colonel Brian Halloran, Kellogg’s fourth Chief of Staff of the Army Senior Fellow.

Every year the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army selects 11 colonels as senior fellows. Of those 11, only two are assigned to academic institutions: one at Northwestern and the other at Harvard University. Each senior fellow is charged with representing the Chief of Staff of the Army as a strategic scout and ambassador, advising the Army’s executive leadership on emerging opportunities and challenges while cultivating enduring relationships and fostering a greater understanding of the Army.

Veterans on campus today

Of Northwestern’s 222 enrolled veterans, 11 are undergraduates. The largest number of veterans are in School of Professional Studies graduate programs (92) and the Kellogg School of Management (64) and other graduate programs, including engineering, education and journalism.

Enrollment numbers reflect those who self-report as veterans or are receiving veterans benefits that the University knows about. There may be other students who are not receiving benefits and who do not identify themselves as veterans.

Campus memorial sites

On Veterans Day and every other day of the year, Northwestern community members can see several tributes to the University's veterans on both the Evanston and Chicago campuses, in addition to the NROTC memorial rock.

• Etched on a plaque in the lobby of Alice Millar Chapel are all the known names of students who have given their lives while serving the U.S. Dedicated in 2007, it is Northwestern's official war memorial.

• A boulder on the north end of the Evanston campus holds a plaque honoring students who died in the Civil War and World War I.

• A boulder south of Harris Hall has a plaque dedicated to 1923 graduate David Hansen, who died in World War I caring for a wounded friend.

• The banners hanging in Alice Millar Chapel are named for alumnus William Heep, a Navy pilot who died during the Vietnam War.

• The flagpole north of Ryan Field holds a plaque in memory of Richard Voigts, who died in the Vietnam War. He was the son of former Northwestern football coach Bob Voigts.

• A plaque outside Abbott Hall on the Chicago campus commemorates those who participated in the V-7 U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School housed at Abbott in the early 1940s.