For Release to the News Media s1

For Release to the News Media: November 5, 2008

ASU - Jonesboro: ASU groups plan activities to honor veterans

Arkansas State University organizations are planning several events to honor America’s veterans on Veteran’s Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, starting with a Main Street parade hosted by the Beck PRIDE Center for America’s Wounded Veterans and culminating with the unveiling of four additions to ASU’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Veterans’ Memorial at the National Guard Armory on campus. General James Simmons, an ASU graduate and former football player, will speak at 9:15 a.m. in front of the veterans’ monument at the Craighead County Courthouse on Main Street in downtown Jonesboro. Beck PRIDE participants will ride in Corvettes in military dress in the parade which starts at 10 a.m. at the corner of Cherry and Main and will pass the courthouse and north to Huntington Ave. The Veterans’ Memorial monument ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at the monument’s location east of the Armory. The four additions include Ray A. Clardy (’42, Distinguished Service Cross); Jimmie G. English (’40, killed in action); Donald W. Holman (’68, killed in action); and Michael J. McCarty (’02, Silver Star.) The granite monument, funded by ASU ROTC alumni and local community organizations, was first dedicated on Nov. 11, 1995. Engraved on the four sides of the monument are the names of all of the ASU ROTC recipients of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and all those who fell in combat. The Beck PRIDE Center for America's Wounded Veterans was founded to help aid wounded veterans with educational programs and services at Arkansas State University. These include resources to access higher education, counseling, personal rehabilitation, advocacy, and financial assistance, as well as to support these individuals to achieve their post-military service goals.