FEATURE
THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY IS IN YOUR HANDS. WITHOUT YOU, WE HAVE NOTHING. HANDLE IT WELL BOYS, WILL YOU? This story originally appeared in the Jan. 25 edition of The Sun and online at http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150125/ ARTICLES/150129749/-1/sports10?p=1&tc=pg A secret ceremony followed by stories from decades past cemented a cross-generational brotherhood between two World War II veterans and the men of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at the UF chapter’s house on Sunday. Veterans Tom Santarsiero, 89, and Frank Towers, 97, were honored with a formal induction ceremony at the fraternity house Sunday afternoon. Though Towers was unable to attend the event, Santarsiero accepted the honor on behalf of all American veterans. “I want the veterans to get the honor, not me,” Santarsiero said. “They are still out there fighting for our country.” Brian Joy, a UF senior and at-large member of the fraternity’s executive committee, said the decision to honor the veterans with the initiation was unanimous among the voting members of the chapter. “Sometimes age differences can form some kind of schism between generations, but I think having such incredible men here to kind of speak to our members about their experiences really helps to bind us together as a country, as men,” Joy said. Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men’s fraternities in North America with more than 275,000 members. The UF chapter was founded in 1933 and has about 80 active members, 19 of whom were initiated this semester. Joy said the men in the fraternity are taught to live by seven primary values: loyalty, duty, respect, service and stewardship, honor, integrity and personal courage. “These guys definitely represent all of our core values,” Joy said of the two veterans. www.lambdachi.org/cross-crescent
The idea to induct the two men came about after a recent event at the Phi Mu sorority. Towers was impressed with the ceremony and said, “Before I see my maker, I’d like to become a fraternity member.” Don Gaddo, co-house director for Phi Mu, and Lambda Chi Alpha jumped at the opportunity to induct the men with a members-only ceremony that he called “emotional.” “This is about the current generation honoring the greatest generation, and it really has been a phenomenal thing,” Gaddo said. After the induction, Santarsiero stood beneath an American flag and told stories about his service in the infantry from 1943 to 1945. Rows of young men sat with their hands clasped, their necks craned in his direction. They asked about his time overseas, about the ups and downs of service, about brotherhood. “You don’t realize what it’s like to really have true freedom until you see other people go through this misery that the people went through,” Santarsiero told them, recalling an instance where he witnessed a French child scoop water from a ditch to drink. One member asked Santarsiero what moment he knew he was becoming a man. “From the very first day you are drafted into the Army, you are on your own,” Santarsiero said. “You start to make your own decisions, and you grow up very, very fast.” Santarsiero shared stories of wartime hardships with the group. After 47 days without changing clothes during the winter, Santarsiero woke up one morning and could not feel his feet. The cold had tortured his skin to the point of frostbite. One foot turned purple, the other black.
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Cross & Crescent February 2015