Two-thousand nine-hundred and ninety-six.
Marco Mendoza and fellow cadets serving in Grand Canyon University’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps helped honor the 2,996 people who died on 9/11 by planting American flags on the lawn adjacent to GCU Ballpark, just as the sun started to peek over the horizon a little after 6 a.m. Monday.
The flags spelled out 9/11, and on social media, the Thunder Battalion posted the words “Never Forget.”
For Mendoza, 9/11 is a time of camaraderie with the community and with other servicemen and servicewomen who seek that sense of comfort with one another in troubling times. It’s also a day, Mendoza said, to “give them that same respect” that he receives from them.
Mendoza, a junior advertising/graphic design major, felt the weight and importance of the day again on Wednesday morning as he and other cadets posted the colors in a reverent ceremony for Honoring America’s Veterans, hosted by GCU at the university’s business complex at 27th Avenue and Camelback Road.
The organization, known for its signature event, the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade, honors and recognizes veterans through community events, such as Wednesday’s Veterans Forum at GCU.
Honoring America’s Veterans got to know GCU through the university’s Army ROTC.
“We know that GCU supports veterans because GCU’s ROTC has been in the parade for years, and we’re honored to have them,” said Navy veteran Paula Pedene, the executive director of Honoring America’s Veterans.
To celebrate veterans on 9/11 seemed apropos, said Pedene.
“It’s just an important day, and an important time to pull everyone together again as a country and make sure that we’re recognizing and thanking those who support us, whether they’re first responders or our nation’s veterans,” said Pedene, whose husband, Bill, is a GCU alumnus.
The Veterans Forum brings together representatives from veterans support organizations and from businesses with strong veterans engagement groups or affinity groups.
Wednesday’s event included representatives from such groups as USAA, Cigna, Banner University Care, Bank of America, APS and Humana, to name a few.
“What we try to do is support those groups, because what we have found is that those groups are our best supporters; they come out in droves to volunteer for the parade,” Pedene said. “We need 300 volunteers to manage that largescale special event.
“The veterans engagement groups build a different culture within an organization that’s about honor, courage, commitment, duty, valor, respect, excellence – you know, the willingness to support each other through camaraderie.
“We like to bring them together and connect with them.”
The event honored those in attendance with a breakfast, as well as an invocation by GCU Provost Dr. Randy Gibb; a talk by Dana Allmond, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Veterans Services; an address by Josh Landspurg, communications director of FireVet, which trains veterans to become full-time firefighters; and a talk by Paul Smiley, author of “The Smiley Leadership and Mentoring Experience” and CEO of Sonoran Technology.
A panel of speakers also shared their experiences in the military, why they joined and what their organizations do for veterans. The panel included Patrick Fitzhugh, regional site director of USAA Phoenix; Pamela Castro, national account manager for Cigna and a Salute Enterprise Veterans Resource Group member; and John Spiekermeier, integrated community care specialist for the veteran population for Banner University Family Care.
Dee Kaspor, GCU’s Veterans Resource Manager, attended the event, she said, to reconnect with all those veterans support groups who don’t hesitate to lend a hand when the university’s military students need help.
Her department at GCU caters to veterans, “so whatever they need, they can come to us, and then I reach out to our community – to GCU CityServe, the U.S. VETS – whatever it is that they ask for, we try to find it for them, whether it’s help with their electric bill or help with dog food.
“We had a student who had come in and they had a family member who had passed away, and they had to take care of things all of a sudden. So we reached out to community pantries, got them food, things like that.”
Kaspor attended the event, she said, to rekindle the camaraderie with those veterans organizations.
“We’re on campus, so I’m away from my outside resources, and I only speak to them when I need them, so it’s nice to get together and trigger their memory so they know that I may need them sometime down the road.”
Trish Shipley, ROTC coordinator and a Navy veteran, said connecting with other veterans on 9/11 made her remember how that impact event united the country like no time since and fueled a whole generation to serve and protect their country – like speaker Josh Landspurg.
Landspurg was a junior in high school when the terrorist attack unfolded.
“My emotion was anger, a feeling that turned into vengeance,” he said. “… I carried this feeling with me when I deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 with a forward operating team, calling in airstrikes against our enemies,” and that feeling remained in his second deployment in 2007.
Now a civilian with a home, family and his health, he says this weekly mantra: “I am alive, and I am present in this moment, and for that I am grateful.”
Landspurg repeated what GCU’s cadets posted on their Instagram: “Never forget …. Let’s never forget that regardless of what you look like, where you’re from or how you vote, we’re all Americans. Let’s never forget the unity we had on Sept. 12.”
Panel speaker Patrick Fitzhugh, when asked why he joined the U.S. Air Force, said, “Why I enlisted? Because of the 2,996 lives lost that day.”
Two-thousand nine-hundred ninety-six.
“I wasn’t in the military when 9/11 happened,” Shipley said. “But the biggest impact it (9/11) had on me was the influence on the military after this happened. Those kids (back then), they saw this happen, and they were just ready. They were ready to fight – ready to defend this country in a way we never had to defend it. These kids stepped up.”
And, like Marco Mendoza, they are continuing to do so.
Internal Communications Manager Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected] or at 602-639-7901.
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To volunteer for the Phoenix Veterans Parade: Click here
Next up for GCU's Army ROTC: Cadets will commit to serving in the Army following graduation at a contracting ceremony 8 a.m. Friday on Prescott Field.
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GCU News: 9/11 memorial display
GCU News: ROTC shows hallmark of kindness at Cards for the Troops
