Wayne Green, Shahanaaz Soumah, C'22, and Leon Dixon.
Earlier this month the nation honored its veterans, and the Mount community took the time to celebrate those veterans closer to home. The Center for Student Diversity and the Office of Residence Life collaborated to create the Mount’s first Veteran’s Day Celebration where our own veterans were able to share their experience in the military. Students heard from Kraig Sheetz, Wayne Green, Leon Dixon and President Timothy Trainor.
Before Kraig Sheetz became dean of School of Natural Science and Medicine, he taught at West Point as well as served as senior advisor to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and a tactical intelligence officer. Growing up in Pennsylvania, his parents encouraged him to go to college, where he learned about the ROTC program. He enlisted after graduation and had thoughts of leaving but stayed to command a company at the request of his advisor. His advisor saw something in him and knew that commanding a company would change Sheetz’s life. Thoughts of leaving the military changed into serving in the Army for 29 years. Toward the end of his military career, he taught physics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he met President Trainor, then the Academy's chief academic officer. President Trainor’s move to the Mount upon retirement from West Point prompted Sheetz to apply for the dean's position.
Wayne Green, vice president and chief of staff, was raised on a horse farm in Kentucky where his parents instilled in him the importance of going to college. At the age of 13, Green decided he was going to West Point to begin his military career, following in his father’s footsteps. Within his 30-year career in the Army, Green travelled the world and brought keepsakes from each location to share with students. One of his first training exercises was in Germany, and the company's captain took them to the unmarked graves of soldiers who fought in World War I. For many of these soldiers, their family either didn’t know where they were buried or didn’t have the resources to fly to Europe and visit their graves. The members of Green's company each picked a grave to spend time with. It was at one of these graves that Green found a chunk of an artillery round from World War I. From his travels Green also has pieces of the Berlin Wall, sand from the beaches at Normandy, and a Soviet tank helmet from Desert Shield.
President Trainor and Center for Student Diversity Director Leon Dixon shared equally compelling stories at a separate location.