Military Appreciation Day in Death Valley

Transcription

1 Military Appreciation Day in Death Valley This Saturday s game against in-state foe The Citadel marks Military Appreciation Day in Death Valley. While flyovers, twenty-one gun salutes and tributes to members of our armed forces are some of the more familiar features of Military Appreciation Day as it takes place each fall in Clemson, the initial event had modest beginnings. Of course Clemson s military connection reaches all the way back to the school s founding as an all-male military college in Throughout the years, Clemson men and later women have served in all our nation s conflicts. Clemson s ROTC program, now featuring both Army and Air Force detachments, is highly respected and has trained officers for the armed services for over a hundred years. So it is not surprising that Army parachutists have delivered the game ball from beneath silk chutes or that Air Force pilots have flown their jets above Memorial Stadium as the band plays the final bars of The Star Spangled Banner. Clemson s November 12, 1994 football game was played the day after Veterans Day and featured a flyover by four F-16 fighters from Shaw Air Force Base. Both the flyover and the 2010 Clemson victory over Georgia Tech were enthusiastically approved by the crowd of 66,800. Not long after that game, former athletic promotions director John Seketa remembers, I got a call from LeRoy Doar, Class of He said the Senior Platoon wanted to perform at one of the games. I had to ask around to find out what the Senior Platoon was. Seketa learned that during Clemson s years as a military college the Senior Platoon had been formed from the best drilled cadets to represent the College in fancy drill competitions. It was a real honor to be named to the Senior Platoon and these men, even forty years later, were proud of that achievement. In 1996, forty-three members of the Senior Platoon, including Doar, marched at halftime under the leadership of retired Air Force Colonel George Lindstedt Class of It was the Senior Platoon s first performance since 1959 and Clemson beat North Carolina State The Senior Platoon returned to Death Valley for several years, making its final appearance in 2000.

2 If Military Appreciation Day s honoring of Clemson s military heritage and our armed forces had proved popular with fans, it also got Seketa thinking. I m from Illinois and when we label something Memorial, we usually have a statue or something to show for it. Here at Clemson, the official name for Death Valley is Memorial Stadium. I asked Danny Rhodes and Dawson Luke, both officers in the Clemson Corps, Where s the statue? Where s the memorial? Completed during World War II, Memorial Stadium had been dedicated to the College s war dead. I was thinking maybe we could put a plaque on the side of the stadium that listed the names of Clemson alumni who had been killed. I thought we could do that for a few thousand dollars. Danny Rhodes, Class of 1968, recalls that, John suggested that we do something to recognize our alumni who had given the ultimate sacrifice. So Dawson and I came up with the idea of the Scroll of Honor and began to collect names. This effort was the genesis for a multi-year campaign culminating in the April 2010 dedication of the Scroll of Honor Memorial. The Memorial, directly across Williamson Road from Memorial Stadium, lists the names of 492 Clemson alumni who died while on active military service just as Seketa had originally hoped. Their names are etched in stones that form the base of a barrow, similar to a large burial mound.

3 Clemson was originally scheduled to play Duke on September 15, 2001, but the Atlantic Coast Conference and the NCAA postponed all games scheduled for the weekend following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Ironically, the Tigers first game after September 11, against Virginia, had previously been designated 2001 s Military Appreciation Day. Due to the national emergency, the pre-game flyover was cancelled, replaced by a solemn tribute to the victims of the attacks and to the first responders who had performed so courageously and selflessly. At halftime, a 21-gun salute preceded America the Beautiful sung by the combined University choruses. In subsequent years, the Clemson Corps, a constituent group of the Alumni Association, became more involved with the Athletic Department in the planning and execution of Military Appreciation Day events. As America s armed forces deployed around the world in response to the September 11 attacks, the Clemson Corps, working with the Army and Air Force ROTC detachments, invited Clemson veterans to form on the field during half-time ceremonies and enabled alumni serving on active duty all around the globe to participate in pre-game ceremonies via satellite connections presented on the stadium s large video boards. Service members led the Pledge of Allegiance and even participated in the pre-game coin toss. The live coin toss for Clemson s September 3, 2005 contest against Texas A&M involved satellite connections reaching from Memorial Stadium to the far side of the world where alumni from both schools were serving in Iraq. Seketa remembered, It was the first-ever live coin toss from Baghdad and still probably the only one. As we continued to work with John, Rhodes recalled, we began to expand the activities for MAD. For example, as we began to have casualties, we decided to recognize them at MAD

4 ceremonies. We also added the march down the hill with the band. I remember contacting Dr. Mark Spede when he took over the band. At Rhodes request, Tiger Band graciously agreed to include military units in its pre-game march down Fort Hill Street to Memorial Stadium. The Clemson Corps had a committee that worked with Athletics and planned certain MAD activates like a reception /tailgate and the march down the hill led by the band, says Dawson Luke, Class of The Air Force and Army ROTC, which were a part of the committee, coordinated the flyovers or parachute jumps. The committee made suggestions and advised John but John was the producer, director and script writer for everything that went on in the stadium. He introduced many notable things but I think his recognition of the families of service members recently killed in action is the most notable. ROTC Cadet and offensive guard Mason Cloy leads the Tigers down the Hill before the 2010 Military Appreciation Day victory over North Carolina State. Through the years, Military Appreciation Day has focused on honoring not only active duty military personnel, but veterans as well. Veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam have been recognized during significant anniversary years. Clemson alumni imprisoned as prisonersof-war have also been honored. Perhaps no tribute has been more poignant than the on-field recognition of Gold Star families, those who have lost loved ones in the War on Terror.

5 Seketa, who retired from the University at the end of 2012, oversaw seventeen Military Appreciation Day football games in Death Valley before passing the guidon to his successor Mike Money. During his tenure at the Athletic Department, Seketa expanded the MAD tradition to include baseball and basketball contests and convinced Atlantic Coast Conference member institutions to host their own Military Appreciation Days. Seketa was named an honorary Clemson Alumnus in As Clemson prepares to face The Citadel on Saturday, it s worth noting that the Tigers are 17-4 since Seketa s first Military Appreciation Day game, including 8 straight wins. Here s to all fans, past and present, and Clemson alumni who are serving and have served in our Nation s armed forces! Thank You Lest We Forget! Please visit the Scroll of Honor Memorial this weekend or the Clemson Corps Scroll of Honor Memorial website to learn about Clemson alumni who have made the ultimate sacrifice. For a complete list of Military Appreciation Day events, visit: Photos courtesy John Seketa and The Clemson Insider.