Members of the WVU ROTC place a wreath at the 9/11 memorial site near Wise Library on Sept. 11, 2020. (WVU Photo/Jennifer Shepherd)
WHO: West Virginia University President Gordon Gee, student veteran Devin Redding, WVU Army and Air Force ROTC Cadets
WHAT: Recognition of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with wreath-laying ceremony
WHEN: Friday (Sept. 10), 11:30 a.m. to noon
WHERE: Downtown Campus Library, 1549 University Avenue; on the quad in front of the library. The wreath-laying will take place beside the WVU Sept. 11, 2001, monument on-site.
NOTES: Gee will be the keynote speaker in a brief ceremony to include a memorial wreath-laying and the playing of taps. Redding, a former Army captain and a second-year law student, will offer remarks. Redding is a 2012 West Point graduate who twice deployed to Afghanistan and was also deployed to West Africa during her eight-year stint on active duty. Cadets will transition into their annual 24-hour vigil in front of the WVU Main Library. The vigil pays tribute to American service members who have deployed over the past two decades to defend the homeland and protect American interests abroad. Shifts of Cadets will march around the library quad in memory of the events, which resulted in the global war on terrorism including Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. In the past two decades, hundreds of WVU Army and Air Force ROTC grads, as well as hundreds of WVU student veterans, have served honorably around the world in support of these missions.
Redding and ROTC Cadets will be available after the wreath-laying and playing of TAPS to speak with members of the media.
BACKGROUND: Army and Air Force Cadets began the 24-hour vigil in 2002 to recognize the personal sacrifice of the thousands of members of the military who were being deployed to defend American interests after the Sept. 11th terror attacks. Those efforts continue today around the world. WVU alumni Chris Gray and Jim K. Samuel, Jr., were killed in the attacks.
-WVU-
jd/09/08/21
CONTACT: John Dowling
WVU Army ROTC
304-894-6641; john.dowling@mail.wvu.edu
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