{"id":16819,"date":"2009-10-20T15:18:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T22:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=16819"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:54:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:54:47","slug":"navy-veteran-celebrates-nau-homecoming-shares-pearl-harbor-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/navy-veteran-celebrates-nau-homecoming-shares-pearl-harbor-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy veteran celebrates NAU homecoming, shares Pearl Harbor experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Homecoming events to honor military veterans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday, Oct. 24<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Veterans Kickoff Breakfast<\/strong>
\n7-10 a.m., American Legion Post #3
\n204 W. Birch Ave.
\nRecognition medals will be presented to NAU veterans. Cost $5 per person. Contact Neil Goodell at (928) 523-3937 or\u00a0neil.goodell@nau.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Homecoming Parade<\/strong>
\n11 a.m., downtown Flagstaff
\nSaluted by a military flyover of F-16s, NAU Alumni Veterans will march with NAU ROTC units in this perennial favorite. Grand Marshal is Medal of Honor recipient Col.\u00a0Jay Vargas<\/strong>, ’61 & ’01.<\/p>\n

Award and Veteran Recognition
\nat the Football Game<\/strong>
\nHalftime (kickoff at 3:05 p.m.),
\nJ. Lawrence Walkup Skydome<\/p>\n

Veteran Book Signing<\/strong>
\n4 p.m. to 7 p.m., High Country Conference Center.<\/p>\n

Bill Van Zanten<\/strong>, ’62, will sign his personal memoir,Don’t Bunch Up: One Marine’s Story<\/em>.
\nDon Price<\/strong>, ’62, is the author of\u00a0The First Marine Captured in Vietnam<\/em>, about Capt. Donald Gilbert Cook.<\/p>\n

Contact Neil Goodell at (928) 523-3937 orneil.goodell@nau.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Veterans Recognition Dinner<\/strong>
\n7 p.m., High Country Conference Center<\/p>\n

The featured speaker will be U.S. Army assistant deputy chief of staff, Major General Rhett A. Hernandez.
\n(888) 778-7628.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In the mix of\u00a0Homecoming activities<\/a>\u00a0on campus this week are a number of events to honor alumni who also are veterans.<\/p>\n

An NAU Homecoming Veterans Kickoff Breakfast on Oct. 24 will feature recognition medals presented to veteran alumni, including\u00a0Virgil Hengl<\/strong>, who received his master\u2019s degree in education from NAU in 1964. Hengl also served in the Navy and witnessed the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

Besides completing a career teaching high school in Williams and Yuma, Hengl, 87, remains active in Pearl Harbor survivor groups and continues to educate the public with his first-hand recount of the attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember seeing several Japanese planes flying about 100 feet above the water and strafing some motor launches filled with American sailors heading for liberty in Honolulu,\u201d Hengl recounts in his\u00a0memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA most barbaric act. In fact, I feel safe in saying the whole attack was barbaric. We could not fight back because of our unprepared response. Sunday was a day of leisure, plus the surprise of the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hengl is looking forward to seeing other alumni veterans during the breakfast, from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the American Legion Post #3, 204 W. Birch Ave., in Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

Hengl’s memories of NAU are more lighthearted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed my time at NAU. I liked its small scale and the personal attention I got from my professors,\u201d said Hengl, who is the father of NAU alumnus and NAU Foundation Board member\u00a0Harry Hengl<\/strong>, who is receiving the 2009 Joe and Marie Rolle Spirit of NAU Award this weekend.<\/p>\n

For Virgil E. Hengl\u2019s first-hand account of Dec. 7, 1941, aboard Battleship U.S.S.Tennessee, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homecoming events to honor military veterans Saturday, Oct. 24 Veterans Kickoff Breakfast 7-10 a.m., American Legion Post #3 204 W. Birch Ave. Recognition medals will be presented to NAU veterans. Cost $5 per person. Contact Neil Goodell at (928) 523-3937 or\u00a0neil.goodell@nau.edu. Homecoming Parade 11 a.m., downtown Flagstaff Saluted by a military flyover of F-16s, NAU…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}