Duty, honor, country. Just a few of the words spoken at the Eighth Annual Veteran’s Day program held Friday morning in the Nursing Auditorium . Guest speaker was Dr. Lamore J. Carter, whose credentials include being a World War II veteran, 33rd Degree Mason, graduate of Fisk University, and founder and first president of the Grambling Lions Club.
The ceremony was opened by Lt. Col. Herbert Sanders Jr. followed by GSU’s Army ROTC Tiger Battalion Color Guard posted the colors, including the flags of all the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Also on the program were the Rev. Dr. Cornell Osborne, a retired U.S. Air Force major and chaplain, giving the invocation and William Rutledge explaining the significance of the occasion. Mack Williams introduced the speaker.
Following Dr. Carter was a flag-folding ceremony given by the Paradise Funeral Home of Arcadia. Ronnie Lyons, commander of the 5th District, gave the closing remarks, and Dr. Osborne ended the program with the benediction.
Later on Friday, the ROTC Department sent four cadets, all criminal justice majors, to the David Wade Correctional Facility in Homer, which also held a ceremony for incarcerated veterans.
The four cadets – Jerrell Whaley, Christopher Webb, Crystal Watts and Deneco Brown – took eight bicycles to the prison to be refurbished by the inmates, which will be given to needy children for Christmas.
“I never took the time to take into account veterans behind bars,” Webb said. “Even though they are imprisoned, they still served their country. The ceremony made just as much of an impact on me as a ceremony outside prison walls.