On Friday, October 27, 2017, The Citadel's Class of 1967, my class, will gather in Charleston for our fiftieth reunion. As our legacy gift to the college that means so much to us, we will dedicate and open to the public The Citadel War Memorial. This eight million dollar project will memorialize all Citadel alumni who paid the ultimate sacrifice in all the wars and conflicts since the school's founding, beginning with the Mexican-American War in 1848. My class honored me by asking me to write the memorial's inscription, a 35 word greeting to visitors designed to set the tone for what they are about to see and experience. When I learned that the memorial's design envisioned a narrative history of the college woven around those wars and conflicts, and that I would be the author of that history, I was humbled. That narrative history, 3300 words in length, was unanimously approved by the Board of Visitors in September 2016. Both the 35 word inscription and the 3300 word narrative will be etched into the memorial's granite walls, a fitting tribute to the men and women that gave all in defense of freedom.
