Roll call of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to be read at MSU on Nov. 11

MSU News Service

The names of more than 6,200 service men and women who died in
Iraq and Afghanistan during the past 10 years will be read aloud in the
Leigh Lounge of Montana State University’s Strand Union Building from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. on Veteran’s Day, Friday, Nov. 11.

The reading is part of the Remembrance Day National Roll Call, a nationwide
grass-roots effort to honor American service men and women who made the
ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9-11 attacks. The
reading is open to the public and will be streamed live on the MSU website
at montana.edu/veteransrollcall/

As part of the roll call, volunteers at more than 175 colleges and
universities from all 50 states will read the names of casualties from
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF), now
called Operation New Dawn.

Each campus participating in Remembrance Day National Roll Call will observe
a simultaneous nationwide minute of silence at 11 a.m. PST (Noon, MST).

The reading of the names is expected to take nearly eight hours. A
Remembrance Ceremony will be conducted from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., with keynote
speaker, Sen. Jon Tester.

The Remembrance Day National Roll Call is sponsored nationally by the
Veterans Knowledge Community of NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in
Higher Education. NASPA is a 12,000-member association for the advancement,
health, and sustainability of student affairs professionals. The Veterans
Knowledge Community (VKC) mission is to advocate for best practices to help
student veteran’s transition to college and succeed. As the National Roll
Call sponsor, the goal of VKC is to have at least one institution in each of
the 50 states participate in the event.

“We wanted to rally campus communities across the nation to send a powerful
message to the troops currently serving that their peers have not forgotten
their sacrifices, or those of the fallen,” said Lt. Col. Brett Morris, the
National Roll Call coordinator.

“The reading of individual names is very poignant because it emphasizes the
significance of each and every life lost,” said Morris, a retired Army
officer and the associate director for veterans affairs at Eastern Kentucky
University. “Like the names inscribed at the new 9-11 Memorial in New York,
each of the fallen deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice. There is no
effort to raise money or promote individual programs. The event is simply to
honor those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf.”

The National Roll Call is grateful to iCasualties.org for the recording of
the U.S. casualties during the past 10 years, from which the list has been
derived.

For information about the MSU Roll Call events, or to volunteer to read,
contact the MSU Office
of Community Involvement at 994-6902 or email community@montana.edu.

For more information about the National Roll Call effort, email
remembrancerollcall@gmail.com or visit va.eku.edu/rollcall to see a list
of participating schools.