The Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial & Roll of Honor: Honoring UConn's Fallen

The Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial was erected in 2008.

When our liberty and security have been threatened and the nation has called, University of Connecticut alumni have answered.

Some have answered the call to military service with the ulitimate sacrifice. That sacrifice is remembered and honored through the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial that stands prominently on the main campus of the University in Storrs and on the Roll of Honor that hangs in the lobby of the Alumni Center on campus.

Both the memorial and the roll are gifts of the Alumni Association to the University.

PURPOSE OF THE SITE
The purpose of this website is to chronicle the memorial and the roll, to share them with a wider audience, to let friends and family know that their loved ones are not forgotten, and to provide an opportunity to nominate those alumni who may be missing from the roll.

MILITARY TRAINING ON CAMPUS
In 1893, a dozen years after its founding, the Storrs Agricultural School became Connecticut's land-grant college. With that designation, the newly named Storrs Agricultural College and future University of Connecticut took on the training of military cadets as one of its land-grant responsibilities.

FIRST TO FALL
During its first decades, military training was required for all male students of the college. In 1898, following the declaration of war against Spain, four members of the graduating senior class headed from campus to camp. Among the four was Willis Nichols Hawley. In September 1898 he spent a week's furlough visiting friends on campus. Two months later, on November 19, Hawley died of typhoid fever.

Hawley was the first graduate of the college to succumb to the hazards of war.

THE WORLD WARS
The Reserved Officer Training Corps, ROTC, was established on campus following World War I. During that war, nearly five hundred students were trained in what was known as the Storrs Army Training Corps. Seven of them would fall in the "war to end all wars."

The outbreak of another world war in 1941 had the campus again on a war footing - and by mid-1942, the Army Specialized Training created through petition to the U.S. Department of War, was the largest program of its kind in New England.

Through Korea, the turmoil of the Vietnam era, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq, University of Connecticut alumni have served their nation.

MEMORIAL DEDICATION
Honoring the memory of all of UConn's fallen, the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial was dedicated during the 2008 Veteran's Day observance at the University. Funded through support from the alumni association, the memorial is a 10-foot by 5-foot brick wall with a cutout in which hangs an enlarged version of the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery and stands on a granite base. The Memorial is adjacent to the Wilbur Cross Building on the University''s Storrs campus.

SUBMITTING NAMES AND MAKING DONATIONS
The Roll of Honor was prepared in conjunction with the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial. Betsy Pittman, University archivist and interim director of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, coordinated research to identify and verify the names of those UConn alumni who died of wounds or injuries sustained while serving in the armed forces of the United States. This site includes a form for submitting names which may be missing from the Roll of Honor. Names may be submitted on the criteria page.

Donations to support ongoing maintenance of the memorial and the research effort may be made to The Veterans Memorial Fund at the UConn Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269-3206.