In honor of the nation's veterans, including CU Boulder faculty, staff and student veterans, the university will host its annual Veterans Day Ceremony on Friday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University Memorial Center (UMC).
The event is open to the public and will feature Colonel Isaac J. Peltier (U.S. Army, CU Boulder alumnus 1992) and the joint ROTC Color Guard. The ceremony will be followed by a reception, as well as the grand opening of the newly-renovated UMC Veterans Memorial Lounge.
In 1947, Colorado Governor Lee Knous proclaimed the planned University of Colorado student union a memorial to “those who served in these great wars.” And so it was named “University Memorial Center” in tribute to all Colorado veterans. And at the 2013 Veterans Day Ceremony, the UMC was rededicated as Colorado’s official veterans’ memorial.
The second-floor Veterans Lounge was expanded in 2015 and now displays dedication plaques memorializing the Colorado veterans and University of Colorado students who died in WWI, WWII, Vietnam, the conflict in Korea, the Persian/Gulf Wars, the conflict in Iraq and the conflict in Afghanistan. The UMC continues to work with CU’s Department of Veterans Affairs to honor the memory of Coloradans involved in current conflicts.
The lounge also features an exhibit with many original artifacts from the USS Colorado, the third ship of the U.S. Navy named in honor of the 38th state. Among the artifacts are the ship’s bell and stern pilot wheel (pictured), a waterline one-meter scale model and the ship's 48-star “Sunday Flag.”
