Veterans received a special salute on Thursday afternoon.
Members of the Haslam College of Business joined in celebrating current and former service persons of the U.S. Armed Forces during their second annual Veterans Appreciation Salute.
Major General John Cardwell, native of Loudon, Tennessee, gave the keynote address. As an alumnus of UT, Cardwell attended the university on an Army ROTC scholarship and graduated with honors in 1984.
A standing ovation welcomed Cardwell to the stage. Cardwell challenged the audience to learn and know the stories behind the names on the plaques and monuments of fallen soldiers and to learn the stories of the veterans with their own families.
Cardwell focused on informing the audience of ways to properly honor and show respect for U.S. veterans. To demonstrate ways for citizens to keep honoring veterans in mind, Cardwell used the acronym V.O.L.
“V” stood for venerate; Cardwell told a story about learning his grandfather’s past and how he served. Cardwell said it was important to learn his grandfather’s story.
The next letter, “O,” stood for obligation, and Cardwell said it was a collective obligation to fight for veterans once they return home.
“There are 21 million living U.S. veterans. While a majority live full lives, there are about 1.1 million who are over 70 percent disabled,” Cardwell said. “We called upon these soldiers to fight for us; now let’s fight for them. Contact your elected officials and demand these veterans don’t get lost in the ruckus of politics and (don’t get) used as political pawns to win elections.”
Cardwell expressed praise for UT and its efforts to become a veteran-friendly campus. Although he praised the recently added UT Veterans Resource Center, he also pushed for more to be done.
“We need to ask our University of Tennessee officials to continue what they’ve made to make this campus veteran-friendly,” Cardwell said. “I’m happy to hear UT is opening a veteran’s center next week, but UT still ranks only 121st among our universities in the United States.”
The “L” stood for “living,” and in Cardwell’s opinion, it was the most important. People should live the best way they can in order to honor veterans’ services, Cardwell said.
“How we live our lives and use the opportunity is the highest form of honor,” Cardwell said. “If you want to honor a veteran, then be a person who’s worth fighting for.
Janice Hall, coordinator with the Office of Diversity and Community Relations, said she thought the university’s support of veterans was important; to show appreciation, she suggested for people to simply stop and thank them.
“If you see anyone in uniform, thank them and stop them, say hello and speak,” Hall said. “I think also just doing the right thing and have integrity, being a Volunteer to the fullest extent. You can do something directly by expressing to them gratitude but also indirectly in how they behave and present themselves.”
The Keynote Address at the Veteran's Salute on Nov. 9, 2017 was given by Major General John Cardwell a graduate of UT in 84'
