51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ

One-hundred-thirty-five American flags will be posted on the Quad on Thursday (May 26), one for each Aggie war casualty, as the campus gathers for its annual Memorial Day Ceremony.

The ceremony, of course, will take place at the Memorial Union — which stands in tribute to our fallen Aggies. The flag display will go up at 1 p.m. on the Quad’s north end, just off the MU’s South Patio, where the ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. Everyone is invited.

Campus Recreation and Unions is the organizer, with support from the Veterans Affairs Office; the student and staff-faculty veterans organizations; Army ROTC; Student Affairs; and Strategic Communications.

Cadet Itzel Moreno will lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and Angela Yam, a music major, will sing the national anthem.

Nick Chase, who just completed his first year in the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis School of Law and serves as the president of the Davis Student Veteran Organization, will deliver the keynote address. Chase earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Santa Cruz in 2010, then joined the Army, becoming a combat engineer and attaining the rank of first lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, he deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 and while there led a platoon tasked with finding and removing roadside bombs. He left the Army in June 2015 and began his studies at King Hall in August 2015.

The program also includes Milton Lang, associate vice chancellor of Student Affairs, who will give a history of the Memorial Union; and AS51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏD President Alex Lee, who will describe the Golden Memory Book, which has a page dedicated to each of our fallen Aggies.

Student veterans will read the 135 names from that book, and taps (played by student Brian Mellstrom) will close out the program.

A reception will follow in the Coffee House, far west end, where the Golden Memory Book will be on display — along with enlarged posters of several of the pages.