The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets will honor Veterans Day and the service of our nation’s military on Monday, Nov. 11. All events are open to the public.
The Veterans Day remembrance ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the War Memorial Chapel at 601 Drillfield Dr.. Del. Nick Rush of Virginia’s 7th District will speak.
At 11 a.m., Rush and Maj. Gen. Randal Fullhart, commandant of cadets, will place a memorial wreath in front of the cenotaph on War Memorial Court. The Gregory Guard, the corps’ precision rifle drill team, will fire a rifle salute, and a bugler will play Taps.
At 4:45 p.m., the corps will hold a formal retreat ceremony on Upper Quad. The Color Guard will lower the flag. Skipper, the Corps of Cadets cannon, will fire, and the Highty-Tighties, the regimental band, will play.
Two vigils also will honor veterans.
The Robert Femoyer Service Squadron will hold a 24-hour vigil at the Rock — a memorial to Virginia Tech alumni lost in World War I — on Upper Quad starting at midnight Nov. 11. The vigil also honors and remembers the men and women who have served in the military. Two cadets will be posted as guards and will change every half-hour. Volunteers from the entire corps and the Air Force ROTC will participate.
The Corps of Cadets’ Echo Company will hold a 24-hour vigil at the Pylons beginning at midnight Nov. 11. Two cadets will be posted as guards at the cenotaph and will change every hour.
Rush enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school and was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne. He left active duty as a noncommissioned officer in 1989.
At age 23, he was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors as the youngest member in its history, serving for 12 years and holding both the chairman and vice-chairman positions. Rush was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in November 2011 and is now serving out his fourth term. In 2017, he was elected by his caucus to serve as majority whip.
