As is tradition, the Georgia Tech community gathered once again to honor the sacrifice of service members and recognize Tech’s long history of military involvement in annual Memorial Day events held by the Veteran’s Resource Center. This year’s events were more than the typical, though, as the Veteran’s Resource Center (VRC) and Alumni Association joined forces to pay tribute to fallen service members and relaunch the Georgia Tech Military Affinity Group.  

At both events held on May 26 honoring those who gave their lives in service to the United States, resource center director Dr. David Ross spoke about the importance of the holiday and what makes it distinct.  

“This holiday is about more than honoring veterans,” says Ross, “it’s important that we are specifically recognizing those who gave their lives in service to our country.” 

The open house held during the day in the Veterans Resource Center, located in the heart of the BioQuad (311 Ferst Drive), recognized Tech’s military history with displays of historical photos, flags representing the different branches of military, and footage of interviews with alumni veterans.  

In an evening event held at the Alumni Association, Ross and student veterans were present to officially relaunch the Georgia Tech Military Affinity Group (GTMAG), a support network of students, staff and faculty both with and without military experience who focus specifically on improving the experience of our student veterans. With this relaunch, the Veteran’s Resource Center hopes to expand that network to involve more members of the community and provide more opportunities to engage and employ student veterans. Georgia Tech staff, faculty, students, alumni, and affiliates can join GTMAG at anytime; more information is available about the program at gtmag.gtalumni.org.  

"It’s wonderful to relaunch GTMAG it at such a special time, I look forward to seeing the network grow and provide more support to our student veteran community,” Ross adds. “It’s a great way to say thank you to our student veterans and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.”