Northwest Arkansas Community College pays tribute to veterans

NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO Dylan Maize (center) raises his hand to ask Jerry Moyer, U.S. Army sergeant of the 101st Airborne Division, a question about his military service, Monday at Cooper Elementary in Bella Vista. Moyer, a recipient of the Purple Heart, has visited Cooper Elementary every Veterans Day for the past nine years to talk about his military service.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO Dylan Maize (center) raises his hand to ask Jerry Moyer, U.S. Army sergeant of the 101st Airborne Division, a question about his military service, Monday at Cooper Elementary in Bella Vista. Moyer, a recipient of the Purple Heart, has visited Cooper Elementary every Veterans Day for the past nine years to talk about his military service.

BENTONVILLE -- Veterans carry not only physical but mental scars from war, said a U.S. Army retiree during Northwest Arkansas Community College's Veterans Day program Monday.

"It's the mental scars, the hidden scars, the scars you don't get to see, that are really the challenge for our society," said retired Army Lt. Col. Timothy Rose, who is business operations manager at the college's culinary division, Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food.

Veterans

There are an estimated 20 million military veterans in the United States, representing about 10% of the total U.S. adult population, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Rose, the guest speaker at Monday's program, spent 28 years in the military. His last assignment was as a strategic intelligence officer in the Pentagon, where he advised defense officials on countering improvised explosive devices and transnational criminal organizations.

He urged veterans to talk to each other about their experiences, and not to be scared to admit they're struggling. He urged those without military experience to talk to veterans, too.

"Don't ask them sad things. Ask them for their funny stories. You can't serve in the military more than a day without something stupid happening," Rose said, drawing chuckles from the audience.

Rose spoke very little about himself or his own experience during his nearly 20-minute talk. He focused primarily on what it means to be a veteran and what it takes to serve. Veterans are warriors, he said.

"When I say 'warrior,' what does that mean," he said. "I break it down into four criteria. One, you've got to be willing. You've got to be capable. You've got to be prepared. And then you have to persevere through all of that. And every veteran in here has accomplished that."

Rose told the audience the United States is under "direct assault" every day.

"And I've sat in the rooms where those things are talked about and discussed and addressed and planned for and missions are launched and contingencies are taking place and every single day, somebody's life is being put on the line to protect us that you will never see in most cases. But it's happening," he said.

About 275 of the college's 8,600 students are veterans, according to Diana Portillo, the college's director of veteran resources.

Among them is Ryan Cruz, who enrolled at the college last semester. He is interested in becoming a history teacher.

Cruz, 40, gave the audience a brief summary of his career in the U.S. Army starting in 2001, just two months before 9/11. He served in Afghanistan and Iraq during three deployments abroad, he said. He got out in 2012 and moved to Arkansas to help take care of his father.

Joe Spivey, chairman of the college's board of trustees, spoke of his father, a World War II veteran, and his son, who is in the Navy and has completed two overseas combat deployments. He also discussed his cousin, Buddy Spivey, who lost a leg and both of his eyes to a land mine in Vietnam and went on to serve in the Veterans Administration.

"One of the greatest honors I had was speaking at his funeral and at Arlington (National Cemetery), where we buried him five years ago," Spivey said about his cousin.

The college's Veteran Resource Center puts on a Veterans Day program each year. Spivey reminded the audience that veterans can go to the center and have an academic adviser work with them as long as they are enrolled, he said.

Soldiers Songs and Voices, a musical group made up of three military veterans, performed during Monday's program.

NW News on 11/12/2019

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