For the past four years, Cal State Long Beach’s Veterans Services has dedicated the Thursday before Veterans Day to honor the nation’s veterans and service members on campus. This year, for the first time, they’ve dedicated a whole week to them.
Director of Veterans Services Marshall Thomas said that plans to expand Veterans Day celebrations on campus have been in the works for a couple of years now.
“It has usually just been one ceremony,” Thomas said. “But this time, and even for the last couple of years, we’ve wanted to show a couple of documentaries and things like that, so we’ve been very fortunate to be able to do that this year.”
In addition to honoring veterans, Thomas said, this week is also about showing CSULB’s commitment to campus veterans and is a way for the campus community to familiarize themselves with the different on-campus services available to veterans and their families.
“[If] the idea and the goal is both to celebrate veterans and to educate the campus community about the veteran experience, then it takes more than a one-hour long ceremony every year,” he said.
Thomas said that he hopes the campus community will attend and get involved in the events.
“We’d love to see people at each one of these events,” he said. “We know that we have a very veteran friendly campus and it’s really gratifying to see people come and enjoy the events that we’re hosting.”
Veterans Week Events:
Thursday, November 7th
When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Veterans Services Center Open House
Where: Foundation Building Room 220
Students can stop by the Veterans Services office and see the new facility, where you can learn about the services provided for service members, veterans, and dependents. Light snacks will be provided.
When: 3 to 4 p.m. – Veterans Day Celebration
Where: Speakers’ Platform in front of the University Bookstore
Veterans Services Office is hosting a celebration honoring our nation’s veterans and service members. Following the ceremony, birthday messages and a cake will commemorate the 238th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps (officially November 10). Attendees are encouraged to invite friends and neighbors who are veterans or to bring a picture of a veteran who cannot attend the event.
When: 5 p.m. – Film Screening – RESTREPO
Where: Beach Auditorium – University Student Union
RESTREPO is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. www.restrepothemovie.com/story/
