Central Michigan University Veteran Resource Center hosted the annual luncheon Monday to celebrate and honor the contributions of veterans who served the United States and veterans who attended CMU, said Duane Kleinhardt, director of the Veteran’s Resource Center.

“It is a way for the veterans on campus to come together and meet each other and it is a way for us to raise awareness of veterans on campus with students who may not be veterans or (interacting) with staff that may not be veterans,” Kleinhardt said.

Terry Kunst and CMU President Neil MacKinnon spoke at the event about CMU's history of supporting veterans.

Corey Hogue

Terry Kunst (left) pictured in his "Forgotten Eagles" jacket as the service flags were brought in the University Center Rotunda on Nov 11 (CM Life [ Corey Hogue)

MacKinnon said that CMU has a long history of helping veterans, such as participating in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps or R.O.T.C program, which started in 1951, and offering military classes on military installations since 1972.

MacKinnon said more than a 150 flag officers and other veterans earned a degree from CMU on military bases. He also said that CMU offers flexible online classes for service members and reduced military tuition rate by $50 per credit hour last year.

“Your sacrifices are seen, your sacrifices are remembered, and your sacrifices will never be forgotten,” MacKinnon said.

Kunst is a Vietnam war veteran and a CMU graduate of 1979. He is the co-founder of the Central Michigan Veterans Fund and president of Forgotten Eagles’ Chapter 3, a veterans organization that helps veterans with meeting and acquiring help getting essential supplies.

He said he felt as 23-year “grandpa” in class with students that were younger when at CMU, but said he was honored to be back on campus.

“Back then, I never thought I would be coming back to campus as a guest speaker,” Kunst said.

In his speech, Kunst shared his path in the U.S. army.

When he was 16-years-old in a high school, he remembers being called to the principal's office only to be told that his brother, Gene Kunst, 18, had been killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.

Kunst described feeling a misdirected "anger" towards his brother in what he called his "selfish" teenage view on the loss of his brother. Kunst feared that his death, "was gonna mess up my life, and my family's too."

Kunst soon, however, enlisted into the U.S army in 1970 when he was 17 years old for some of the same reasons his brother went: tired of being in school and wanting to receive the benefits of the G.I bill.

The bill helped returning veterans with a host of grants and scholarships to assistance with loans for school, which Kunst used to enter CMU in 1973, and graduate with a degree in business and administration in 1979.

In the army, Kunst was a door gunner crew chief with 101St Airborne Division.

Kunst directed much of his speech to fallen soldiers who died in combat, such as his brother, and he called them "heroes." He also spoke about his own experience and described the level of support he has helped organize for veterans since.

Kleinhardt, who himself served in U.S Navy for four years active-duty in Iraq, and 27 years in the army reserve, said that: "War is stupid."

He said this quote from an unknown author, says that veterans, people who were under fire, were often the first to decry war's use and to instead call for peace, knowing first-hand what it entails for everyone involved.

Sebastian Bacher, a freshman student who served six years in the U.S. Navy and returned to Mount Pleasant to study biology and pre-med at CMU, said that it was important to hear about the experience and feelings Kunst's talked about.

"It was nice have that generation talk about their experience," Bacher said.