Vet Fights for Fellow Classmates
The Press of Atlantic City
November 7, 2011
The first time Steve Gilroy was in college, at Rutgers University almost a decade ago, "I didn't know what I wanted from life," said the 28-year-old Mays Landing resident.
So he joined the Navy, trained as an electrician, and spent 2004 to 2008 deployed off Somalia and Iraq.
He saw some action against pirates while on a destroyer off Somalia. Then he transferred to a patrol boat near the Iranian border, where "there was always a lot of tension, but nothing came of it," he said.
Now back in college at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, he is president of the Student Veterans Organization. A communications major, he wants to work in public relations after he graduates next year.
The Stockton Student Veterans Organization holds fundraisers all year to help veterans attend school, because the GI bill doesn't cover all costs, and not all veterans qualify. At 8 p.m. on Veterans Day, November 11, the group will hold such a fundraiser at Scarduzio's Restaurant and Lounge in the Showboat Casino. Tickets are $30 and available at the door.
At 8 a.m. on Friday, the group will read the names of 6,000 military personnel, who have fallen since September 11, 2001, at Independence Plaza on campus. At noon the group will host speakers and a flyover by the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey National Guard, followed by a 1 p.m. ceremony at Stockton's Veterans Park.
Source: The Press of Atlantic City - November 7, 2011, page C1