College Shows Its Appreciation to Country’s Veterans

WINTERVILLE�Pitt Community College paid tribute to the nation�s veterans this month with a special ceremony in the school�s Charles Coburn Center.

Held Nov. 10�the day before Veterans Day�the event featured nearly 200 Pitt County JROTC students, an East Carolina University ROTC honor guard and remarks from Army Capt. Chauncey McLeod.

A combat veteran with service in Afghanistan, McLeod is a readjustment counseling therapist with the Veterans Outreach Center in Greenville. During his speech at PCC, he emphasized the importance of thanking the nation�s veterans for their sacrifices and discussed the services available to them locally through the outreach center.

Angela Cline, PCC�s Veterans Affairs Certifying Official, said the number of veterans enrolled at Pitt is continually rising with each new semester. She said there are approximately 250 veterans and dependents currently enrolled at the school, which was named by G.I. Jobs magazine as a �Military Friendly School� for 2010.

Cline said the magazine ranked PCC in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide for its work with veterans.

Declared a national holiday in 1938, what has become Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day in celebration of world peace. Congress changed the name to Veterans Day in 1954, and, in October of that year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked citizens to observe the day by remembering the sacrifices of servicemen and women who had taken part in America's wars for the cause of peace.

11/19/2009