Today, UNC senior John Petrone pointed out in a letter to the editor that our UNC community has missed something. And we at CRdaily are acting on his request that this university not forget the individual of whom he wrote.
This past month, Army Private First Class Morris Walker, of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade, 25th Infantry Division was killed in action. He is the first UNC alum to be killed in the war in Afghanistan. He was 23.
Walker graduated from UNC in 2008. He enlisted in the Army. In April 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan.
On August 18th, Pfc. Walker was riding in a Humvee on a patrol in Paktika Province when an improvised explosive device was blown up next to the vehicle, killing him along with Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen.
UNC has a proud if subtle tradition of honoring our veterans. We have a prominent memorial to UNC war veterans between Memorial Hall and Phillips Hall. We have another prominent memorial to Civil War veterans, the famous “silent Sam” statue.
So the next time you walk past Phillips and Memorial Hall, stop, read the inscriptions, and take a moment to remember this:
For our tomorrow, they gave their today.