Hawkeye Community College Plans Veterans Day Week Activities
posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 in
College News
WATERLOO–Hawkeye Community College is planning several events on campus in honor of Veterans Day, including a documentary film screening on Thursday, November 9, and the annual Veterans Day ceremony on Friday, November 10. Both events take place in Tama Hall on Hawkeye’s Main Campus, 1501 East Orange Road, Waterloo.
The documentary Almost Sunrise follows two young men who, in an attempt to put their haunting Iraq combat experiences behind them, embark on an extraordinary journey across America. Doors will open at 11:00am, with exhibitors and veterans service providers in the Tama Hall lobby. The film begins at 12:30pm, with a discussion and reception following at 2:30pm.
The annual Veterans Day Ceremony will be held on Friday, November 10, at 10:00am in the Tama Hall Lobby, with Lance Corporal Joseph Nolte delivering the keynote. Nolte joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2002 at age 17. Within weeks of completing demolitions training, he was deployed to Iraq with the First Platoon Charlie Company, First Combat Engineering Battalion, First Marine Division. He served during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and was part of the First Marine Division’s single longest combat tour under the command of current U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
Nolte was injured in combat during counter-insurgency operations near the Syrian border, resulting in nerve damage and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. He was medically retired from the Marines and in 2007 moved to Waterloo, where he attended Hawkeye Community College and the University of Northern Iowa. He was president of Hawkeye’s Student Veterans Organization and organized the college’s first bone marrow drive. After graduation, he started an outdoor excursion company that takes veterans kayaking, hiking, fishing, and camping in what he calls “wilderness therapy” in an effort to pass along what he can to help them cope with the scars of war.
The ceremony will also feature music from the Hawkeye Community College Chorus and Orange Elementary Fifth Grade Chorus. A flag raising will take place on the campus courtyard at 9:30am prior to the ceremony.
Tags
- Military and Veterans
- Veterans Day