MURFREESBORO — Middle
Tennessee State University alumnus Morris Summers and his older brother Felix
once again found “their spot” at the annual MTSU Veterans Memorial Service
Saturday (Nov. 22).
It was in seats near five Summers family memorial bricks
placed near others at the Veterans Memorial site outside the Tom H. Jackson
Building on the west side of campus between Kirksey Old Main and Middle
Tennessee Boulevard.
The memorial service was just one of a number of activities
for veterans and men and women currently serving in the military as part of the
33rd annual Salute to Armed Services Veterans Day events sponsored
by MTSU Athletics and the Department of Military Science.
In addition to their own bricks at the site, others
purchased for family members included one for their father, S. Felix Summers;
one for Morris Summers’ son, Norman C. Summers; and one for Morris Summers’
father-in-law, George C. Hixson.
“We’ve been coming almost every year,” said Morris Summers,
a 1973 graduate who earned his degree from the School of Agribusiness and
Agriscience. “We came 33 years ago to the first veterans program, and walked
across the (Horace Jones) field that day. We have not missed more than three of
these.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Morris Summers said of the ceremony.
“I was telling Dr. (Sidney A.) McPhee (university president) that the programs
they have now are excellent for guys and women coming back to school or just
now starting school.”
One of the newer programs is Vet Success on Campus, and
MTSU, which has a veteran population around 1,000 students and their dependents,
has one of the highest-rated veteran-friendly programs in the nation.
Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner
Many-Bears Grinder spoke from the heart and personal experience in a message
about veterans.
She spoke of the “amazing sacrifices service members and
their families have to go through.”
Grinder’s daughter-in-law, Billie ’Jean Grinder, a U.S. Army
helicopter pilot, was killed in Iraq Feb. 21, 2010, a short time before her
deployment was to end.
“Not everyone can be in the military,” Grinder said, “but
everyone can support active-duty personnel and veterans.” She urged the
audience of nearly 100 people to not “miss one opportunity to thank a person in
(military) uniform. To those of you here today in uniform, I salute you.”
The state leader told the audience “MTSU has been a great
partner in helping veteran students.”
Those attending the 30-minute ceremony heard Grinder’s
message about suicide by veterans.
“Tennessee’s lost far too many veterans to suicide,” she
said. “The trend’s going upward. Something’s wrong with that.”
During the service, MTSU Veterans Committee members held a
tree-planting, this year for families of veterans.
At the Dr. Joe Nunley Memorial Award presentation during the
veterans’ picnic adjacent to the Rose and Emmett Kennon Sports Hall of Fame,
MTSU alumnus John Furgess (Class of ’65) of Nashville recognized all World War
II veterans with the 25th presentation of the honor.
Past recipients Fayne Haynes (2008) of Murfreesboro and Ed
Smith of Brentwood, Tennessee, were among the World War II veterans attending.
In 2015 and going forward, veterans from the Korean,
Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be nominated for the
honor.
Furgess presented Murfreesboro’s Joe “Joey” Nunley Jr. with the
2014 Dr. Joe Nunley Sr. Memorial Award for Service to Others.
“I knew something was going to happen. I didn’t know
exactly,” said Nunley Jr., telling the crowd “genetics” played a role in his
receiving the trophy. “This starts a new chapter of this award and this is a
way to do it.”
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