Valor, Courage, Sacrifice: 15 Rutgers Veterans Honored with NJ Distinguished Service Medal

This veterans day, 15 Rutgers University veterans are newly bearing the NJ Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of their military service. 

On Friday, the university held its annual Veterans Day ceremony in Kirkpatrick Chapel, an annual tradition. 

Rutgers University is nationally known for its programs that are tailored to meet the needs of veterans wishing to pursue an education, according to Col. Stephen Abel, Director of Veteran and Military Programs and Services for Rutgers and a retired Colonel with the U.S. Army.

Currently, more than 1,800 veterans are working toward a degree at Rutgers, according to Richard L. Edwards, executive vice president for the university.

"Here at Rutgers, every day is Veterans Day," Abel said.

Before an audience of combat veterans and their families, Abel pinned the NJ Distinguished Service Medal - the highest military award in the state - onto the lapels of the Rutgers veterans. 

Major Gen. Robert G. Kenny, U.S. Air Force and an attorney in New Brunswick, said that while he was growing up in the city, he idolized the WWII veterans in his community, including his father and grandfather, and later, his father-in-law, all combat veterans.

"These are the kind of heroes we are here today to honor," he said.

Kenny said that the U.S. is currently coming out of the longest continuous period of war in the nation's history, starting in 1990 with the Gulf War.  

In the next five years, over a million servicemen and women will return home, in search of education and jobs, he said.

They deserve our respect and gratitude, he said.

"Our veterans are a precious national asset," he said. 
 
The recipients of the NJ Distinguished Service Medal are as follows:

• Robert W. Burchell, Vietnam War, Coast Guard
• Brian R. Casendino, Operation Enduring Freedom, Marine Corps
• Marcus A. Curtis, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Air Force
• Nicolas A. Delisi, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army
• Joseph B. Gormley, Operation Enduring Freedom, Army
• Nicholas W. Hatcher, Operation Enduring Freedom, Marine Corps
• James W. Hughes, Vietnam War, Army
• Aaron L. Martinas, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Air Force
• Matthew P. Montemurno, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army
• Sang Nguyen, Operation Enduring Freedom, Navy
• Ricardo Sanchez, Operation Enduring Freedom, Marine Corps
• Shirley Sanchez, Operation Enduring Freedom, Army
• Matthew P. Solowsky, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Navy
• Andrew Taylor, Operation Enduring Freedom, Army
• Steven J. Webb, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army