Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets and midshipmen will assemble in dress uniforms at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 12, 2012 for the annual Veterans Day ceremony at UNC-Chapel Hill. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends are invited to attend the free public ceremony in Hill Hall.
A color guard representing all three UNC ROTC programs – Army, Air Force and Naval/Marine – will be on hand to present the colors. Veterans in the audience will be recognized. See a list of Carolina alumni lost in war, with biographical sketches, provided by UNC’s General Alumni Association.
This year’s speaker is retired Commander Marv McWherter, who after attending Naval Supply Corps School, reported to his first duty station, the USS Eversole (DD-789). Subsequent assignments included Contracts Officer, Naval Electronic Supply Office; Control Division Head, Naval Air Station Bermuda; Contracts Division Head, Naval Weapons Center China Lake; Assistant Supply Officer, USS Mars (AFS-1); Executive Assistant, Naval Material Command; Commander, Defense Contract Administration Management Area, San Diego; and Executive Officer, Naval Regional Contracting Center, San Diego.
Commander McWherter has been awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal with Gold Star, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, along with numerous other citations.
He retired in 2009 and worked as a government contracts consultant, an automotive service advisor and a newspaper sales executive. Commander McWherter continues to give back to his community as a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where he holds the position of quartermaster.
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, falls each year on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the armistice signing by the Allies and the Germans in 1918 that ended World War I. Read more about Veterans Day.
Published November 9, 2012.