Despite having to move indoors due to inclement weather Nov. 11, Georgia Military College (GMC) managed to honor all veterans’ service and sacrifice through several Veterans Day events in Milledgeville.
Among them, kindergarten through fifthgrade GMC students cheered on staff members who had served in the military during a PAW-sitively Thankful Walk-Thru, while art students displayed veteran- themed artwork in the Legislative Chamber of the Old Capitol Building.
“We teach them at a young age to be appreciative of those who have served to protect our country and our way of life,” said Lieutenant General (Ret.) William B. Caldwell IV, president of Georgia Military College.
“Less than 1 percent of America today will serve in uniform; 99 percent of America has no association or familiarity with serving in the Armed Forces,” Caldwell continued. “We use Veterans Day as an opportunity to educate them and help them gain a better appreciation for what it means to serve three or four years, perhaps make a 20-year career, or like in my case, do 37 years. We help them know what it means to serve your nation, to serve something bigger than yourself.”
GMC also held a Veterans Day ceremony in the Goldstein Center for Performing Arts. The guest speaker there was Heath Clark, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives for District 147, who recently was appointed to the GMC Board of Trustees as an advisory board member by Speaker of the House David Ralston.
“Thank you for making sure that we have the greatest country on earth. We can never thank you enough,” Clark said in his speech.
Established in 1879 “to educate young men and women from the Middle Georgia area in an environment which fosters the qualities of good citizenship,” Georgia Military College is a public institution with a current total enrollment of 8,812 students. GMC has 13 college campuses throughout Georgia, a Global Online College campus that serves more than 4,000 fully online students, and a residential, college-level, U.S.
Army Senior ROTC program serving 254 students.