CAB hosting Veterans Day march, ceremony

The Campus Activities Board, in partnership with the Student Government Association and ROTC, will host a Veterans Day march and ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 11. The march will begin at 4 p.m. at the Rodgers Recreation Center and proceed down Ochre Point Avenue to the O’Hare Academic Center, where the ceremony will be held in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall.

“This event has come about as a response from the Salve student body seeking a way to honor and support our veterans, as well as to learn through their stories,” said GinaMarie Tontini ’17, president of the Campus Activities Board.

The ceremony will feature two veterans: Stanley Werner and George Mendonsa, who is widely thought to be the “kissing sailor” depicted in Life magazine’s iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” photograph.

Werner entered the Marine Corps in February 1967 and served in Vietnam from September 1967 through October 1968. During this time, he participated in numerous operations and was wounded in action twice. Werner then enlisted in the Rhode Island Army National Guard, where he served for 25 years, retiring as a brigade command sergeant major.

Born in Rhode Island to Portuguese immigrants, Mendonsa enlisted in the navy after the 1942 fishing season. He completed quartermaster training and served on the destroyer USS The Sullivans during World War II.