Veterans Day at the University of West Georgia

Jonathan Miller, a University of West Georgia student and former soldier, said it best: “A lot of these names are just names to most people. There’s a story behind every one these 6,000 names.”

Volunteer read those names -- more than 6,300 American servicemen and women who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in a decade of war -- during a Veterans Day ceremony on the UWG campus.

UWG was one of nearly 200 schools across the country to participate in Remembrance Day National Roll Call on Nov. 11.

Among those stories was Miller's executive officer, Major Robert Baldwin. Once, while training in Louisiana, the troops were put up in a filthy hotel room. Baldwin found it unacceptable and rented rooms for his troops in another hotel. He took money out of his pocket to cover the cost of the hotel rooms.

“He cared about his soldiers,” said Miller, who joined the U.S. Army after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. “He cared about the mission. That was what he was.”

Baldwin died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Sept. 21, 2010, leaving behind his wife and four children.

The ceremony at UWG began with the presentation of colors by Carrollton’s American Legion Post 143. There was a moment of silence at 2 p.m. -- 11 a.m. Pacific Time. In 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marked the temporary cessation of hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany.

The Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education sponsored the national roll call.

Members of the UWG community wrote cards that will be sent to troops currently serving. 

Remembering is important, said Corey Rumann, UWG assistant professor and director of the College Student Affairs program, who helped organize the event.

“We forget and feel disconnected from the wars," Rumann said. "That’s why this day is so incredibly important."