Skip to Main content

ASU Military Appreciation Week Activities Set

November 04, 2011

Angelo State University will honor the nation’s military and veterans with Military Appreciation Week activities beginning Saturday, Nov. 5, and culminating with the ASU Rams football game against Tarleton State on Saturday, Nov. 12.

The week of activities will kick off with the 8th Annual Veterans’ Day Parade, sponsored by the San Angelo Veterans Service Office, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, in downtown San Angelo. ASU’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 847 will march as a unit, while ASU student veterans, various student organizations, and ASU’s Homecoming king and queen will also join the Combat Veterans of San Angelo in the parade.

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the ROTC and its Arnold Air Society honor society will conduct their annual flag retreat and candlelight vigil at 5 p.m. at the ASU flag pole and Memorial Oak Grove next to the Mayer Administration Building, 2601 W. Ave. N. Special guests will include surviving family members of fallen World War II veterans who attended ASU.

Veterans’ Day activities on Friday, Nov. 11, will be highlighted by the National Remembrance Day Roll Call from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive. The names of more than 6,300 casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, now called Operation New Dawn, will be read.

From 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Nov. 11, the Center for Student Involvement will host a signing wall in the University Center for tributes to veterans. Remembrance ribbons will be distributed, and at 1 p.m., ASU will participate in the National Minute of Silence. At 4 p.m., a flag folding and closing ceremony will mark the end of the National Remembrance Day Roll Call.

ASU has joined the nationwide grassroots roll call effort to honor American servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The roll call is sponsored nationally by the Veterans Knowledge Community of the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

On Saturday, Nov. 12, the ASU Rams football team will play Tarleton State at 2 p.m. at San Angelo Stadium for ASU Military Day. Activities at the game will include Col. Mark Damiano, Goodfellow Air Force Base’s 17th Training Wing commander, performing the coin toss. A Goodfellow joint service color guard will post the colors during the national anthem, which will be performed by Patriotic Blue, a multi-service singing group from Goodfellow.

Active duty and retired military, military reservists and their families will have free admission to the game. Additionally, camouflage “koozies” from the ASU Center for Student Involvement will be given to the first 500 ASU students through the gate.

Prior to the football game, all military and their families are invited to the ASU Alumni Association’s pre-game tailgate party starting at 9 a.m. at the LeGrand Alumni and Visitors Center, 1620 University Ave. The Ram Jam pre-game party will follow from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., also at the LeGrand center.