Nov 07, 2009 | 08:30
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Nov 07, 2008
Bruin vets, cadets and war casualties honored
UCLA ROTC cadets salute at the Veterans Day ceremony. - Reed Hutchinson
A few hundred people, from ROTC cadets to World War II veterans, from military families to students passing by, gathered in Wilson Plaza to pay their respects. Many recent veterans, including one UCLA alumna who returned just two days earlier from flying missions in Iraq, said Veterans Day took on new meaning now that they had served overseas.
"UCLA meant so much to me personally, and it's so nice to know that I mean something to UCLA and that they recognize the veterans," said Air Force Capt. Jamila Hammad '04, who said she felt like she was still on "maybe Kuwait time" since coming home on Wednesday.
Hammad addressed the crowd, remembering two friends and fellow alumni who died in battle: Capt. Gil Williamson and 1st Lt. Ali Jivanjee.
"All those who I commissioned with have never known an Air Force of peace. We willingly joined up knowing it was only a matter of time before we saw the front," she said. "Both Ali Jivanjee and Gil Williamson believed the ideal of freedom was worth fighting for. … Never forget their sacrifice."
Operation Mend surgeon Timothy Miller, Chancellor Gene Block, Brig. Gen. Megan Tatu and Capt. Jamila Hammad attending UCLA's Veterans Day ceremony. - Reed Hutchinson
The event marked UCLA's second observance of Veterans Day, which was first commemorated last year with a plaque dedicated to Bruins killed while serving in the military. The ceremony highlighted the university's other services to veterans, including the recently opened Veterans Resource Office on campus and Operation Mend, which provides free facial reconstructive surgery to seriously maimed soldiers.
"It is a privilege to take part in serving our returning service men and women," Chancellor Block told the crowd. "Military service is a courageous choice. We are inspired by their fortitude."
Two of Operations Mend's patients attended the ceremony. Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Octavio Sanchez was disfigured by an explosive while serving in Iraq and has since become good friends with Dr. Timothy Miller, chief of UCLA's Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. In 2006, an explosion in Iraq sheared Marine Gunnery Sgt. Blaine Scott's nose off. He attended the Veterans Day ceremony less than 24 hours after skin from his forehead was grafted over the nose that Operation Mend physicians have begun rebuilding for him.
"Veterans Day definitely has more meaning for me than it used to," Scott said.
Scott and Sanchez are among Operation Mend's 15 patients so far – although even the first one is not yet done with his full series of surgeries, said Miller.
Operation Mend patients Octavio Sanchez, lower left with hook, and Blaine Scott, bandaged and standing, acknowledge applause from the crowd. - Reed Hutchinson
"It takes a long time," Miller said. "But it's a unique position to be in, to be able to give something back to them."
The ceremony concluded with a trumpeter playing "Taps," and the crowd schmoozed and milled around at a small fair displaying campus resources for veterans – including the Veterans Resource Office, the Office for Students with Disabilities, and Campus Human Resources. Conversation stopped as everyone looked skyward when the two fighter planes roared overhead, and the crowd cheered when the planes returned for a second, lower flyover.
Several adjunct professors in the naval science division of UCLA's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) said they appreciated the school's acknowledgment of veterans and support of the current student cadets.
"It's great to see the school supporting ROTC," said Lt. Taylor Brownlie.
His fellow instructor, Lt. Tarek El Masry, agreed. "I just got back from deployment in September," he said. "This is definitely a time to pay respects to those who have gone before us, be it the recently injured or those from Vietnam, or even those who served in times of peace."
Masry added that the comments of UCLA alumna Brig. Gen. Megan Tatu resonated with him: that serving in the military means missing out on loved ones lives at homes, seeing friends die and risking one's own life. Tatu called on the crowd during the ceremony to honor veterans with their actions.
"The greatest thanks that an American can give a veteran is to not waste the freedoms that our men and women sacrificed to gain," Tatu said. "Live your lives well and to the fullest. Be productive citizens, and in so doing, you give meaning to their sacrifice."
