Four cougar veterans pay tribute
Seattle’s Museum of Flight had a goal of raising $700,000 to fund the construction of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial park at their 2018 Wings of Heroes Gala. To show support of the park’s construction, WSU Vancouver Veterans Coordinator Krista Griffin and Development Coordinator Elizabeth Becker searched for four WSUV students to attend.
The attendees selected by Griffin and Becker included Christopher Buendicho, Sarah Holm, Alex Duffield and Mark Fangonilo. Scott Carson of the WSU Carson College of Business funded all travel expenses for the student veteran attendees.
The auction successfully raised the $700,000 needed to build the memorial. According to Duffield, the City of Seattle plans to have a restored B-52 Stratofortress aircraft in the center of the park.
The WSU Vancouver student veterans who attended the auction received a small model of the iconic Boeing plane. Duffield, a student veteran and reporter for The VanCougar said, “We chose, collectively, to house it (the small model aircraft) in the Veteran Center on campus.”
In addition to the main event, eight Medal of Honor recipients and other Vietnam veterans in attendance were recognized for their service.
WSU Vancouver has a Veterans club anyone may join, whether they’re a veteran or not. Similar to other clubs on campus, the Veterans club participates in events such as the annual back to school BBQ, hikes and paintballing.
The club meets in the Veterans Center (VCLS 212) throughout the year. The first club meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 12:15 p.m.
According to Griffin, 14 veterans have enrolled at WSU Vancouver this summer alone. There are a total of 125 veterans enrolled this summer term. While veterans are not required to enroll in summer courses, these students only receive housing allowances and benefits when enrolled in classes full time. Due to these circumstances, most of the student population in the summer are veteran students.
Griffin said members of the Veterans club have “collected items for care packages to send to active duty military in Afghanistan.” She said, “Non-military connected students working on a group project or wanting to hang out with military connected students are welcome to use the vet center with the military connected student.”
For more information about this year’s Wings of Heroes Gala or WSU Vancouver Veteran services contact Krista Griffin at krista_griffin@wsu.edu or at 360.546.9570.
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