Veterans

Eastern Kentucky University’s Veterans Education and Transition Support (VETS) organization was honored as national Program of the Year by the Student Veterans of America (SVA) for “The Journal of Military Experience.”

Four future VETS leaders received the honor at the closing banquet of the SVA’s fourth annual national conference in Las Vegas, Nev.

Lt. Gen. Robert Yerks received more than two dozen awards for valor during his long and distinguished military career.

But it was an injured soldier in a hospital who paid the ultimate tribute to Yerks when he struggled “violently” just to raise his arm enough to salute the retired lieutenant general.

In a speech on the U.S. Senate floor today that honored the nation’s military veterans, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell also saluted Eastern Kentucky University’s efforts on behalf of veterans.

Eastern Kentucky University has earned a No. 2 ranking among the nation’s four-year colleges and universities for its commitment to helping military veterans further their education.

As its numbers of student veterans continue to soar thanks to Operation Veteran Success, Eastern Kentucky University again has been named a Military-Friendly School by G.I. Jobs magazine.

Eastern Kentucky University student veterans are adding their stories to the “From Combat to Kentucky” oral history project at the Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky.

Recent Eastern Kentucky University graduate Travis Martin was one of 14 individuals nationwide to receive a 2011 Literacy Grant from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

“When we arrived, the smell of rotting flesh filled the air. I was told to pull the first guard shift around the mass-grave site. During one of my patrols, I made the huge mistake of looking down. The body of a little girl was still there, holding onto a stuffed rabbit. The little girl was wearing a purple dress; she still had a blindfold on her eyes.

Eastern Kentucky University has received more than $7,000 in employee donations and matching funds from Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass for the University’s Student Veteran Relief Fund endowment project.

The Fund is being developed as part of EKU Operation Veteran Success, a series of initiatives designed to make Eastern an even more veteran-helpful campus.

Eastern Kentucky University has earned a national No. 1 ranking for its commitment to helping military veterans further their education.