EL CAJON, California —With flags, memorial walls, and a symbolic table for one, the Student Veteran Organization at Grossmont College this week has been actively remembering fallen comrades in advance of the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend.
Darron DeVillez, SVO president, urged his fellow students during a rally in the Main Quad to feel compassion for veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars who have committed suicide since returning home.
He said that 6,500 veterans each year have taken their own lives, and that 14 percent of this total were veterans who since completing their military service had enrolled as students at college campuses throughout the nation. A way to realize the extent of the ongoing tragedy, he said, is to remember that for every one serviceman killed on the battlefield, 25 veterans commit suicide.
Grossmont students wrote tributes, poems, and words of support for Americans who gave their lives in combat, or, who, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ended their lives. They also wrote in marker on canvas some impromptu messages telling of the love and respect they have for the men and women who currently are under arms.
Flags of the various branches of the U.S. Military Service were festooned on a wall overlooking Grossmont College’s Main Quad. A “Table for One” dedicated to service members missing in action (MIA) or prisoners of war (POWS), was set up in the Griffin Center, where a placard explained the meaning of the poignant display. The placard read:
“It is set for one. This table is our way of symbolizing that members of our profession of arms are missing from our midst. They are commonly called POW’s or MIA’s … we call them brothers. They are unable to be with us this evening and so we remember them.
“The table set for one is small…It symbolizes the frailty of one prisoner against his oppressors.
“The tablecloth is white – symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to duty.
“The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing and the loved ones and friends of these Americans who keep the faith, awaiting answers.
“The vase is tied with a yellow ribbon, symbol of our continued determination to account for our missing.
“A slice of lemon on the bread plate is to remind us of the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land.
“A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears endured by those missing and their families who seek answers.”
“The glass is inverted – to symbolize their inability to share this evening’s toast.
“The chair is empty—they are missing….”
Frankie Rojas, vice president of the Student Veteran Association, told students that veterans feel “a moral obligation to maintain awareness of the sacrifices our comrades have made.” In so doing, he added, SVO seeks to remind students and the general community about the importance of Memorial Day.
It is “a day meant to remember all those who are lost in the line of duty, to stand up for the U.S., and to be willing to fight to make the U.S. a stronger and better country,” Rojas said at a student-sponsored barbecue and band concert on Wednesday afternoon, May 22.
-DHH-
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