By Jamil Oakford/ editor-in-chief
Collegian file photo
Each board member received a white envelope as NW history professor Laura Wood began her presentation on her Landmarks of Social Memory course.
The envelopes were open but held a dog tag taped beneath the flap, and Wood promised she’d explain.
She told the board Nov. 17 that each packet held information about a fallen soldier in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars.
“Each of the names on your dog tag are from a soldier from the Fort Worth area,” Wood said.
But for Chancellor Eugene Giovannini, Wood decided to do something a little different.
“We tried to find someone in your hometown of Seneca Falls, New York, but we couldn’t find anyone,” she told him. “But we did find a young man who went to Waterloo High School. We did this to make it more personal for you.”
Giovannini wasn’t only an alumnus of that high school, but he also taught there at the beginning of his teaching career.
Taking a moment, Giovannini looked down at his given dog tag to read the name.
“I knew him,” he said. “He was on the basketball team I coached.”
And a thick silence settled into the room.
The dog tags that the board were gifted are tags that TCC students can buy from Wood on NW Campus.
“We sell the dog tags with names and information that come straight off of our memorial wall on campus for $5,” she said.
The Iraq War Memorial on NW holds panels of names of soldiers in the area that have died.
While students can give her any fallen soldier’s name they wish, they will pay $8 and have to provide basic information.
“I’ll need their name, date of birth, branch of military they served and the year they died,” she said.
Wood said she sells these dog tags for a few reasons, and the first is for the sake of remembering those who have sacrificed.
“This is a way to take these memories with you wherever you go,” she said.
All the money raised from the dog tags go to two places.
The money will help maintain and fund any upkeep needed to the panels for the war memorial on NW.
It will also help the traveling course she helps teach.
“The money also goes to the Landmarks of Social Memory trip we go on in the summer,” she said. “That money will help raise funds for hotels and meals.”
