The public is invited to a Veterans Day ceremony hosted by Lyon College in partnership with local veterans’ service organizations at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 10, in the Sloan Auditorium of Brown Fine Arts Center on the Lyon College campus, 2300 Highland Rd., Batesville.
Keynote speaker will be Lt. Col. Adam Young. Lt. Col. Young was born in Hot Springs, grew up in southwest Arkansas and graduated from Bismarck High School in 1998. At the age of 17, Lt. Col. Young enlisted as an infantry rifleman in Company A 1-153IN, 39th Infantry Brigade at Arkadelphia. He deployed to Operation Southern Watch in Kuwait as a rifleman in 1999-2000.
He graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in history and minor in military science. In December 2003, Lt. Col. Young received his commission as an infantry officer through the UCA ROTC.
After attending the Infantry Officer Basic Course in 2004, he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, as an infantry platoon leader with the 39th Infantry Brigade. Upon returning from Iraq in 2005, Lt. Col. Young continued to serve on active duty as a trainer of units deploying from Fort Hood, Texas.
From 2006-2007 Lt. Col. Young deployed and was embedded with the Afghan National Army as an infantry company team lead, serving in remote areas of southeast Afghanistan. Upon returning from Afghanistan, he began working full time for the Arkansas Army National Guard, where he served in assignments at the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center, Recruiting and Retention Battalion, 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, the 87th Troop Command’s Joint Services Support and the Human Resources Office.
Lt. Col. Young is currently the rear detachment commander for 2-153IN Battalion headquartered in Searcy. He holds a master’s degree in strategic leadership and is a doctoral student of executive leadership at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. He currently resides in Sherwood, Arkansas, with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children.
Jerry Bowling, instructor of Military Science at Lyon College, will lead the ceremony.
Following the service, there will be a complimentary barbecue luncheon for veterans, family members, and friends on the South Lawn of Brown Fine Arts Center at Lyon College.
While Lyon College will celebrate veterans on Nov. 10 this year, Veterans Day is observed annually on Nov. 11 and honors those who have served and are serving in the U.S. armed forces. Veterans Day has its origins at the end of World War I when at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the fighting ended with the signing of an armistice.
