UAlbany Unveil's Its Veterans' Wall of Honor

The 36-foot-long Veteran's Wall of Honor (Click for larger view)

Vietnam veteran Fred Bagley in front of his image on UAlbany’s Wall of Honor.

“I finally let all that go and now I’m back for the first time in all those years,” Bagley, now 55, retired and living in Sarasota, Fla., said on June 9. He was among more than 400 other University alumni, veterans and honored guests who attended the unveiling of a Veterans Wall of Honor during Reunion Weekend. The 36-foot-long, multimedia mural incorporates the names of nearly 3,000 alumni, students, faculty and staff who served in the military beginning in 1846 and covering six major U.S. wars, smaller conflicts and peacetime duty. It is one of the most comprehensive efforts ever undertaken on a college campus to commemorate military service.

Participants in the Veterans Project await the unveiling of the Wall of Honor in the University Library.

The unveiling capped a daylong tribute to those from the University community who served during the Mexican-American War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War. The event included band music, speeches, dramatic readings, a fly-over by the U.S. Air Force’s 174th Fighter Wing, a reception, buffet lunch and informal discussion sessions with representatives from various military eras.

resident Karen R. Hitchcock said the tribute was intended to recognize and give voice to veterans and “their stories — sometimes heroic, tragic or ordinary, but always about dedication.” Hitchcock thanked the alumni volunteers who made the Veterans Wall of Honor possible by scouring University archives to compile an extensive database of military service for the first time in the institution’s history. She also related brief biographies of a few of the veterans honored. “Thousands of University at Albany men and women have served our country with honor and distinction. They’ve left an unforgettable legacy,” she said.

Artist Dahl Taylor, left, who created the Wall of Honor, with Brig. Gen. William C. Martin of the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, who gave the keynote address.

The daylong ceremony was marked by silent prayers for classmates who had been killed in wartime. There were also small moments of forgiveness and understanding — a kind of redemption after years and decades of carrying the wounds of war.

It was an event that brought closure to many, including Bagley, whose homecoming was made all the more special by his discovery that his tour of duty as a pilot in Vietnam was honored in the mural. Artist Dahl Taylor, who painted Bagley’s portrait from a photograph, met his subject in person. “You did a wonderful job,” Bagley said to Taylor. After surviving more than 1,000 combat flight hours in a Cobra without injury, Bagley’s helicopter was shot down by anti-aircraft fire in Laos. Remarkably, he was not only able to land the disabled aircraft unscathed, but he and his wounded co-pilot were rescued by U.S. troops soon after they hit the ground.

“Being included in the mural is such an honor,” Bagley said. “It helps a lot in the long process of healing from that divisive war.”

“This day is cathartic. It’s been a long time coming,” concurred James Whalen, B.A.’72, who headed a riverboat squadron in Vietnam and served as a flight deck officer on the USS Saratoga. Whalen, a retired U.S. Department of Justice attorney who lives in Manhattan, led a discussion about the Vietnam War. It was his first time back on campus after 29 years. He said the Wall of Honor helps heal the slight he felt for decades without any plaque or official recognition at the University for Vietnam veterans, particularly alumni killed in combat.

everal attendees spoke movingly of their own personal wartime experiences. Haskell Rosenberg, B.A.’40, now retired and living in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford, described “the unspeakable horror” he witnessed upon liberating Jews from Nazi death camps near the end of his three-year tour of duty as an Army combat rifleman in France and Germany during World War II. “It was something out of Dante’s Inferno...the crimes too horrible to imagine,” said Rosenberg, a recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Master of ceremonies Joseph E. Persico, B.A.’52, a Navy veteran and author of books on World War II history, examined the paradox of war and the range of veterans’ experiences. Persico described himself as “two yards short of a pacifist” and yet has saved his Navy uniform in a closet for more than 45 years and displays near his writing desk a World War II banner with five stars for his father’s five brothers who served in that conflict. Persico said the University veterans honored on the mural offered their country what Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.

Joseph Whittlesey, right, was among volunteers recognized by President Hitchcock, left, for his work on the Veterans Project. Whittlesey is the husband of Eunice Baird Whittlesey, B.A.’44, who spearheaded the effort.

” Eunice Baird Whittlesey, B.A.’44, led the group of alumni volunteers who tirelessly researched University archives for 18 months in order to compile the list of 3,000 veterans and solicit snapshots from which Taylor worked. Whittlesey dedicated her work to those “members of the University community who, in the dark hours of war and conflict, answered their country’s call.”

Allen B. Ballard, a professor of history and Afro-American Studies who published a historical novel about the Civil War, read a letter from an anonymous soldier believed to be from “the Normal School Company.” The company was led by math professors Albert N. Husted and Rodney Kimball, who organized 200 faculty, students and alumni from the University (then called the Normal School). They fought in 17 Civil War battles with the 44th New York Volunteers. “We see the gray lines like killing shadows,” Ballard read in a resonant baritone, “gray to the right, gray to the left.”

he succession of readings, reflections and music created an emotionally charged atmosphere that pushed hearts up in the throats of attendees. “This is a wonderful event. It’s nice to see so much attention paid to veterans,” said April Richardson-Moore, Class of ’99, who served as a flight nurse with the Air Force during the Persian Gulf War and later earned a master’s degree in public health from the University. She now works in HIV and AIDS testing for the state Department of Health. “This is a major shift from the reaction we got for Vietnam War service. It’s a tremendous recognition,” said Marguerite Davis, B.A.’82, an Air Force flight nurse in the 1970s and during the Persian Gulf War who now works as an occupational health nurse.

“I think Tom Brokaw and his books on ‘the greatest generation’ opened up the way for recent recognition of veterans, and it reminded Americans that the benefits we enjoy today came about thanks to the sacrifice of vets,” said Edward A. Reynolds, B.A.’38, an Army Air Corps meteorologist who ran a weather station in Iceland during World War II. Reynolds, a retired high school principal from Hudson Falls, N.Y., attended with classmate Robert Decker, B.A.’38, of Virginia, a Navy vet, and Reynolds’s roommate at the University. Decker served as a weather forecaster during World War II at naval air stations in Newfoundland and the Pacific islands.

The tribute events were a family affair for many alumni veterans. Marvin Z. Jones, B.A.’83, an Army field artillery and operations specialist, was delighted to find his portrait painted on the mural. “Words can’t explain how I feel,” he said, posing for family snapshots in front of his uniformed likeness from two decades ago. Jones, who lives in the Albany suburb of Delmar and works in pharmaceutical sales, was joined by his wife, Cynthia; and daughters, Marvina, 11, and Tasha, a sophomore at the University.

Joseph Gathers B.A.’81, M.A.’82, drove up from Staten Island, where he works for Verizon and is an Army reservist. He was joined by his wife, Jacqueline; sons Louis, 11, and Timothy, 14 months; and daughter, Desiree, a senior at the University. Gathers is a 16-year Army veteran who was a chief warrant officer during the Persian Gulf War.

he emotional day of tribute began more than a year before with a few dedicated alumni who wanted to honor their classmates who served, and sometimes died, in defense of freedom. “This has been a labor of love and it’s given me a wonderful feeling,” Whittlesey said near the end of the day’s festivities. “I’m overwhelmed and moved to tears by the gratitude veterans expressed for the University’s recognition.”

Editor’s note: For a virtual photo tour of the Veterans Project event, click on http://www.albany.edu/feature2001/special/veterans/index.html.