Thousands pass by their names each day, and this week all of UC Davis will be reminded of their sacrifice.
A highlight of UC Davis’ annual Memorial Day Ceremony, to be held at 5 p.m. Thursday (May 23), will be when UC Davis Army ROTC cadets read the names of the 136 students and alumni who have died in military service to the United States — our Gold Star Aggies.
Their stories are told in the pages of the Golden Memory Book, kept online and under glass along the Gold Star Aggies Wall in the East Wing of the Memorial Union — a building so named in honor of our military casualties.
Our Gold Star Aggies, whose names appear on the wall, date back to World War I, which ended 100 years ago last fall. Some are much more recent: The 136th, Capt. Sean Endecott Elliott ’09, a Marine Corps pilot, was added last year.
Like him, this year’s keynote speaker has experience with military aviation. Anthony Lim Bulaclac Jr., who is currently both a major in the Army and a student in the Graduate School of Management, has managed support for aviation operations around the world.
He studied mechanical engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and has commanded a company of unmanned aerial vehicles that provided support of combat operations in Afghanistan. In addition to two deployments to that country, he has served in South America and Africa.
When Bulaclac graduates this summer, he hopes to use the entrepreneurial skills gained at UC Davis to improve the technological capabilities of the Army.
“In the future, I would love to see more people pursue the path that I have taken — young bright minds in the military seeking to gain a valuable skill set,” he said in a profile published by the Graduate School of Management. “There are so many opportunities to apply what we learn here to improving our military enterprise.”
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter will also speak at this week’s ceremony.