One of my blog posts in 2013 contained
a reference to the Memorial Scroll of Honor on the campus of Clemson
University. I know, however, that unless
you have visited the Scroll in person you did not truly have an understanding to
what I was referring. The next several
posts on my blog are related to the Memorial Scroll of Honor. For those of you who are new to my blog, this
memorial is very special to me. All who
are willing to read this post and the upcoming ones will learn of its story,
its importance to me, and the privilege I have in being connected to it. This will also serve as a preface of
something special to come to the SCDAR in the very near future!
For those of you who know me well, you
know I am a huge Clemson fan and you may be thinking that these blog posts are
simply about promoting Clemson. I assure
you that it is not the case. The DAR is
all about patriotism and part of that is our work with the veterans. This is simply the story of how one
university with a rich military history recognized its alumni who paid the
ultimate sacrifice. Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if these blog posts inspired other colleges and universities that
haven’t done so to this point to memorialize their alumni who perished in the
line of duty to their country! Who
knows, with the DAR members all over the country that follow my blog that are
as die hard a fan for their respective schools as I am for Clemson, colleges
and universities that do not have a memorial may soon have one!
With that being said, this story
begins with the formation of The Clemson Corps.
I want to thank The Clemson Corps for providing me with the information
which I have edited and added to for the next two blog posts.
History of The Clemson Corps
After the Vietnam War, interest in
ROTC began to decline throughout the United States, and it was no different at
Clemson. Participation in ROTC for
freshmen and sophomores became voluntary in 1969 as Clemson was no longer a
military school. As a result, enrollment
in ROTC continued to decline. In 1998,
Clemson commissioned only 8 Army and 8 Air Force Lieutenants - a total of only
16. That year the U. S. Army notified
Clemson that its program was in jeopardy of being placed on probation if it did
not improve its enrollment of cadets and its rate of commissioning
Lieutenants. This shook the foundation
of this former military school.
Then President Deno Curris asked
Retired Army Lieutenant General Gene Blackwell, an alumnus of Clemson, to form
a panel to address this serious situation and to make recommendations as to
what should be done to reverse this negative trend.
General Blackwell formed a team of
interested professionals who were great visionaries. The result of this team’s efforts was the
formation of The Clemson Corps in 1999, a constituency group of the Alumni
Association whose mission is two-fold.
First, the Clemson Corps raises money in the form of Alumni
contributions to fund Clemson Corps scholarships. These scholarships help the ROTC cadre to
recruit outstanding young men and women into ROTC. With the outstanding leadership of the ROTC
departments, the commissioning rate has increased to approximately 50 cadets
per year. For those of you who are not familiar with Clemson, Clemson is one of
the smaller schools in the ACC; therefore, this commissioning rate is strong. Both the Army and Air Force ROTC departments
now meet and often exceed their assigned mission for commissionees. The Clemson Corps also supports the ROTC
departments in many other ways, such as honors and award ceremonies,
Pass-in-Reviews, mentoring programs, and guest speakers.
The second mission of the Clemson
Corps is to help perpetuate Clemson’s rich
military heritage. The major initiative in this regard is Military
Appreciation Day, a total Clemson effort at one of Clemson’s home football
games. This day is special and continues
to grow and improve each year. In trying
to tell about the day, I will leave something out; therefore, I will highlight
a few. The Scroll of Honor is guarded 24
hours by the Army ROTC. Bowman Field has
a display of military equipment. The
traditional walk down the hill to the stadium prior to the game begins with a
riderless horse, the Upstate Pipe Band, the Clemson cadre, and all
veterans. If you are watching the game
on television, you will notice that the stadium is not solid orange but purple
instead. It is called the “Purple
Out.” The team wears purple uniforms,
the coaches wear purple and camouflage, and the fans wear purple all in honor
of those who have received the Purple Heart in service to their country. During the game, recognition of some of the
many alumni who have given service in the Armed Forces are presented throughout
the game. I must say that this is the
only time where fans do not mind the television timeouts. The halftime ceremony includes the
presentation of the families of South Carolinians that lost their lives in the
line of duty during that year, the Battle Field Cross,
a tribute to all
veterans with the Salute to the Services, and this past year a video about the
Scroll of Honor that left more than 82,000 fans silent at its conclusion. After a decade of increasing emphasis at
football games, Clemson now celebrates Military Appreciation Days during
basketball and baseball games, and I understand that soccer will be added this
year. I do know that John Sekata
attended an ACC meeting and shared what Clemson was doing to honor the military
in the hopes of inspiring other schools to have a Military Appreciation Day;
however, I do not believe that any school has embraced this yearly day across
the sports to thank veterans like Clemson.
Scroll of Honor
Another major initiative of The
Clemson Corps is the Scroll of Honor. In
2002, as plans were being made for the fall Military Appreciation Day, John
Seketa, the Athletic Department representative, suggested that Clemson somehow
identify those Clemson Alumni who had died in service to their country. I had the opportunity to ask John what made
him think about this. His answer was direct. “What is the name of the stadium?”
I answered Memorial Stadium [for those who
had paid the ultimate sacrifice]. He
then asked me, “Where was the memorial for those fallen?” I thought about it. I have been going to Clemson football games
since I was a baby and have watched the stands grow and expand. Granddaddy had never shown me a memorial at
the stadium. The only mention is on the
sign for the stadium. John told me that
where he was from the football stadium had such a recognition. The simple question, “Where is the memorial?”
is what started the ball rolling on the creation of the Scroll of Honor.
Dawson Luke and Danny Rhodes, who were
at that time Co-Chairmen of The Clemson
Corps’ Operations Committee, agreed that this would be a critical aspect of
perpetuating Clemson’s strong military heritage. They began to collect names of those alumni
who had given the ultimate sacrifice, that is, they died while performing their
military duties. The Scroll of Honor was created to recognize
these heroes, and it was unveiled at Military Appreciation Day in 2003
(Maryland game). The original Scroll of
Honor was in a portable frame that was moved from place to place on the campus. Then, The Corps realized that a temporary,
portable scroll was not befitting the sacrifice that these great alumni had
made; therefore, in 2005, that group of men began to consider a permanent
memorial on campus that would bring appropriate honor to these heroes.
In their research, they found in the
archives of Strom Thurmond Institute the document from 1942 that certified that
the new football stadium would be named Memorial Stadium to honor Clemson’s
alumni who “have made the supreme sacrifice in the service of their
country.” Needless to say, wouldn’t I
love to see that document! This drew The
Corps to the area of the stadium for a site for the memorial. In 2006, The Corps obtained the wholehearted
approval of the Athletic Department to use the site which stands on an axis
that extends straight from the West Zone, through Howard’s Rock to Tillman Hall
in spite of the fact that the Athletic Department would have to reassign
parking for certain benefactors
as well as others. In March 2007, the Scroll of Honor Memorial was
proposed to the University Administrative Council and received their 100%
approval to proceed. I will have to
interject that then President James Barker was whole heartedly behind this
project. I had the opportunity to speak
with him about his support and he told me that he wouldn’t have had it any
other way it was that important. He was even quoted as saying, “No other
project on campus better represents what Clemson is all about than the Scroll
of Honor Memorial.”
With the help of thousands of alumni
and friends of Clemson, this memorial became a reality. Ground breaking was held in August 2008, and
construction began in April 2009 with the dedication of the Memorial in April
2010.
In the next blog post, you will learn
about the Scroll of Honor’s symbology and sacrifice represented by it.
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