More than 1,400 current or former members of the U.S. military or members of their families are enrolled at George Washington University. There are student veterans in every school and veterans represented among faculty and staff. And 2024 is the 70th anniversary of the first Veterans Day, when Nov. 11 became a national holiday to honor Americans of all wars.
Andrew Sonn, the GW assistant dean of students and director of the Office of Military and Veteran Services, welcomed students, faculty and staff to a brunch on Friday in celebration of Veterans Day for military-affiliated members of the university community and their families in the Grand Ballroom of the University Student Center.
The observance began with the Capital Battalion, GW’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, presenting the colors.
GW has a tradition of educating service members and their families that began when it enrolled the first service member to take advantage of the GI Bill in 1944, alumnus Don A. Balfour, B.A. ’45, a World War II Army veteran. GW also has a history of national recognition for the services it offers student veterans and members of their families.
In opening remarks at the celebration, Sabrina Minor, GW vice president and chief people officer, spoke of her personal connection to the military through a great-grandfather and grandfather, who both served and taught her, she said, “to respect anybody who is willing to give their life and willing to put their life on the line to protect this country.”
Minor noted that GW has “the largest enrollment of military affiliated students of any private research [Association of American Universities] institution,” which adds “a unique perspective that enriches our community.”
President Dwight Eisenhower and Congress enacted Veterans Day in 1954 to be observed on as Armistice Day, the end of fighting in World War I. Reggie Jaramillo, president of GW Student Veterans Association, said that since then “millions have thought to continue to answer the call [to serve their country] whether it was Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan or countless other places where their courage has been tested.”
“Here at GW our student veterans bring a wealth of diverse experiences and perspectives. They share stories of resilience and strength but also embody an incredible potential,” he said.
Representing faculty, Capt. Jean Marie Sullivan, who assumed command of the GW Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit in May 2023 and is a professor of Naval Science, said, “GW veterans are drawn to this university because they continue to want to serve something bigger than themselves, something ultimately good and worthwhile, worthwhile to preserve so that it can be passed down to our children and grandchildren and not because everything about our country or this university is perfect or correct, but because even in all of its flaws and imperfections, it stands for something good and something special. To me that’s worth defending.”
The keynote speaker, Lisa Carrington Firmin, was introduced by Sonn as a combat-tested U.S. Air Force colonel who retired as its most senior ranking Latina officer.
Firmin joined the military after graduating from college with a major in journalism. She said she was uninterested in working her way up in the armed forces. She had “ganas,” she said, a desire and ambition to do great things so she joined the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted officer. As a child, she had circumnavigated the globe from Japan to Panama with her father who served at posts around the world in both the Air Force and Navy before settling
“I grew up understanding other cultures, [being] respectful of other cultures, which I think is so important,” she said.
She “coasted” through high school and the school counselor failed to recommend college, but Firmin’s father, who had only a GED, had stressed the importance of an education. So, she enrolled in Texas A&M University, Kingsville, and graduated with honors in three years. “Don’t ever let anybody tell you what you can and cannot do,” she said.
“A college degree changed completely the trajectory of my life,” she said. “I could be picking crops right now…I have relatives that do that. Education is so important.
“I carry the burden of women, my gender, ethnicity on me, and I have to give account 120% every day, whatever site I go to,” she said. “In the military, I moved 17 times on an average of every 1.7 years and that’s hard on a family.”
She had her heart set on becoming a base commander, “a job that has loads of headaches,” she said. “You run a small city—engineering, communications, services, dormitories, everything. But I wanted that job, and I’m proud to say years later, I had it and it was a real headache, and it was a rewarding job, a challenging job, a great experience to help people and their families.”
The trajectory of her education took her from the Air Force fighter pilot corps to base commander to commander in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, where she was awarded the Bronze Star for combat. She retired as a full colonel.
She went on to set up the University of Texas ROTC, the largest in the country, to conducting diversity training and becoming the author of the award-winning book, “Stories from the Front,” which recounts the sexual trauma experienced by service members. The book helped her confront the experience of sexual harassment and assault in the military, which she had suppressed. She now plans to become an entrepreneur and work with veterans who want to set up businesses.
“Never underestimate your education,” she said. “It is powerful. I fought for my opportunities. I put everybody else first. I led like a servant leader because I did not want anybody else to feel like I felt sometimes—marginalized, dismissed and down-valued.”
