CA Welcomes Service Members on Veterans Day
Colorado Academy welcomes three servicemen as part of its observance of Veterans Day on November 11. Speaking to Middle and Upper School classes is Ret. U.S. Marine Eric Alva. In January 2003, in the build-up to the Iraq war, Alva’s unit, the 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, was deployed to the Middle East. His unit was among the first to cross the border of Kuwait into Iraq for the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Three hours into the ground war, near the city of Basra, he stepped out of his vehicle, triggering a land mine. The violent explosion threw him 15 feet from the vehicle, and left him with a broken left leg; a torn open, severely nerve-damaged broken right arm; and a badly injured right leg that was later amputated. He had become the first American wounded in the war, and the war’s first Purple Heart recipient. In 2007, he joined Congressman Martin Meehan in introducing the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill designed to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Speaking to Lower School classes are CA alumnus Colin Gumm (CA ’94), who served in the U.S. Army in Kosovo and Iraq, and Lt. Col. James Reeman current Flight Commander with the Colorado Air National Guard.
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