Campus celebrates Veterans Day

Some were young and some were old. Some wore uniforms, others wore street clothes.

All of them however, share a common background: service in the military.

On Nov. 5, local veterans and current service men and women gathered for Citrus College's fourth annual Veterans Day celebration at the Campus Center Mall.

The event kicked off with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by a 21-gun salute accompanied by the folding of the American flag.

Dean of Students Martha McDonald, who was the keynote speaker, shared some of her past with the audience. She was born in Mexico, but her mother brought her to the U.S. when she was 5.  As an immigrant, she knew she was going to have to work hard and get a good education in order to succeed.

She served in the U.S. Marines for seven and a half years, and completed two tours: one in North Carolina and second in Mar Island in California.

She was accepted to Cal State Fullerton, where she did not do as well as she could have done she said, and was put on academic probation. She then transferred to Chapman University, where she obtained her bachelor's degree in psychology.

She now has four children of her own; two of them are serving in Iraq right now. She talked about how it can be nerve wrecking at times. 

"Every time the phone rings in the middle of the night, I cringe," she said.

People are always asking how she, as a mother, is able to stay so calm through her children's deployment. She said she "needs to let things happen and not try to control things."

The main attraction was the flight of the two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Air Force, which flew over Citrus College three separate times.  There was also a humvee, and an m16A2 Half-Track for display.

History professor Bruce Solheim hosted the event with help from Ginger De Villa-Rose and Steve Nelson.

Del Villa-Rose has helped with the event all four years, and is an assitant volunteer veteran coordinator and a co-founder of the Books to Boots program.

She is also a former student of Citrus and is now studying at Cal State L.A.
Nelson is a history professor at Citrus and at Azusa Pacific University. He is also a director at the Fort MacArthur Museum. Nelson provided the uniforms and m16A2 Half-Track, among other vehicles, that were on display during the event.

Nelson has also helped with the event for the last four years.

Being a veteran himself, Solheim has a true understanding of the importance and sacrifices of men and women in uniform.

"I thought it was necessary to honor our vets coming back from Iraq," Solheim said.

Solheim was an aviator for the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1986.

Ninety-three-year-old Marvin "Patrick" Schurr, who was in the Army's Air Force from 1941-1945, was one of the many veterans in attendance for the "Salute to Veterans" event.

While serving in the Air Force, Schurr was in charge of loading and organizing the planes in New Guinea and in the Philippines.

Even before enlisting, Schurr was no stranger to sacrifice. Growing up in Buffalo, New York, in a family of nine during the Great Depression, Schurr had to quit school at the age of 13 to get a job to support his family.

"It wasn't the good old days," Schurr said.

Along with older veterans like Schurr, several young veterans were in attendance, including Joshua Serna, who was discharged from the Air Force in 2005 and started classes at Citrus last week.

Before coming to Citrus, Serna was stationed in Italy from 2002 to 2004, and toured Iraq from 2003 to 2004.

"It was a great experience," Serna said. " It was one of the best experiences of my life. I miss the camaraderie."

Serna has found some of that camaraderie again through a program known as Boots to Books.

In 2005, Citrus College started the first Boots to Books program for veterans.
Boots to Books is a counseling program taught by Manuel Martinez (Books to Boots co-founder) that teaches student veterans how to adjust to civilian life and succeed in college.

 "It's an excellent program," Serna said. "It's been beneficial for me dealing with my own experiences."

For more information on the Boots to Books,  visit the Citrus College Web site, www.citruscollege.edu, or contact Solheim at bsolheim@citruscollege.edu.