Lehigh hosts annual flag-raising Veterans Day ceremony

Thomas Guest, ‘28M, had a few extended family members that served in the Army and Navy, but when he sat down with a recruiter over 20 years ago, he said he wanted to serve for the tangible reasons: money, education and job training. What he said he appreciated most within his first year of service, however, was the intangible. 

Having grown up locally in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, he was now spending time with people all over the country, spanning New York City to Alaska. Guest had developed a sense of service, camaraderie and leadership.

Students, faculty and community in uniform, watched as the Lehigh Steel Battalion and Color Guard unfolded the U.S. flag and raised it high above campus at the UC Flagpole around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Veterans Day.

Joey Colucci, ‘29, a member of the armed forces support club and ROTC, delivered the opening remarks for the ceremony.

He said in 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year all hostilities in the war to end all wars ceased.

The following year, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson dedicated Nov. 11 to all soldiers who fought in World War I, naming it Armistice Day. Congress declared it a federal holiday in 1926, but it wasn’t until 1954, Colucci said, that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Veterans Day proclamation. 

“Everyone here today, whether you’re a professor, a student or a member of the Bethlehem community, is benefiting from the peace and freedom that our veterans fought for,” he said. “Our veterans selflessly put their own lives, plans and comforts on hold so that we could pursue our own. We honor that debt, not only with words, but how we show up for each other every single day.”

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Curran, professor of military sciences at Lehigh, spoke after Colucci, defining what the phrase “thank you” means within the veteran community. 

He said the phrase has been especially prevalent since Sept. 11, 2001, but he struggled to form a response to the words of gratitude, as for some reason or another, it always felt inadequate.

“How do you summarize years of service and duty and sacrifice in a brief reply?” Curran asked the audience. 

Ultimately, Curran said “thank you for your support,” is now his response when people express their gratitude to him. He said this is because military service can’t endure in a vacuum, as it requires surrounding communities of support. 

Donald Outing, vice president for equity and community at Lehigh, also spoke at the flag raising. He said his military experience taught him that service is about something greater than oneself. 

“I learned that our strength is not in our sameness, but in our willingness to stand together despite our differences,” he said. 

Outing said this lesson extends beyond service and into the Lehigh experience, and that veterans can be honored by carrying their example of service.

Student veterans were in attendance during the ceremony, including Guest, Andrew Debray, ‘27M, and Elias Pessiki, ‘22, ‘27M. The three are founding members of Lehigh Student Veteran Alliance, a Graduate Student Senate recognized organization. 

Guest said the organization’s mission is to support veterans in the Lehigh community in professional and social capacities. 

Debray said to him, his service in the Navy extends beyond himself, and the answer to why he chose to serve is something he didn’t fully understand until entering civilian life. He said he really loves his life in the U.S., and it was important to serve, as the grandson of an Army Korean War veteran and a first-generation immigrant from France.

“When we moved to the U.S., my family married a family in the U.S.,” Debray said, “but I have family in France that is alive because someone was saved (by a veteran).”

Pessiki, who was an undergraduate student at Lehigh, said he has deep ties to the university. He went through the ROTC program starting in 2018, served in the Army for four years after attending Lehigh and has now returned to campus for an MBA.

Guest came to Lehigh after 21 years serving in the Marine Corps, seeking a graduate certification in learning design. He said he wasn’t fully prepared for the civilian transition but in particular struggled with the transition to Lehigh, as the two experiences are very different. What was initially exposure to the civilian world, he said, is now exposure to the international world.

“I’ve been able to have classes with international students from China, Iran, the Gaza Strip, and that has been very fulfilling for me as well to broaden my horizons,” Guest said. 

Colucci laid a designated wreath for Veterans Day composed of 10 branches, representing each of the special qualities of American veterans. 

A moment of silence and a rendition of “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes accompanied members of the ROTC raising the American flag in the morning’s wind.