ROTC Joint Service Run to Commemorate Veterans Day Slated for Nov. 12

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RIT Army ROTC

Members of the RIT Army and Air Force ROTC organizations will participate in the 2010 Joint Service Run on Nov. 12. The squads will join other local college ROTC groups in the annual event that begins at the University of Rochester and ends at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. At the memorial, the cadets will hear from Barry Culhane, RIT’s executive to the president, who will share his experiences while serving in the U.S. Army.

Reserve Officer Training Corp cadets from local colleges will honor service men and women of the past at the annual Joint Service Run on Nov. 12.

ROTC units from Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester will participate in the commemorative run that begins at 6 a.m. at the Goergen Athletic Center, University of Rochester, River Campus Sports Complex.

Runners will follow Wilson Boulevard along the Genesee River, pass Strong Memorial Hospital and conclude the run at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Highland Park.

Students from the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force ROTC units will run, “call cadence” (the traditional call and response phrases) and gather at the memorial for an address by Barry Culhane, who served as a medic in the Army 1969-1971. Culhane, executive assistant to the president of RIT, was part of the local planning team that built the Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

“This is a way to honor veterans and Veterans Day,” says Peter Dierkes, one of the event organizers and a member of the University of Rochester Army ROTC unit. The senior history major, who joined the college’s ROTC unit two years ago, follows in his grandfather’s footsteps.

“An event like this reminds you that you might be deployed,” he says. “It honors the past, shows we can work together, and how important unity is in a time of conflict.”