Avella native helped create IUP monument
Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Rho Tau Chi (PTX) military honor fraternity unveiled a student-designed monument to honor veterans of Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom on Veterans Day.
The monument, “Answering the Call,” sits outside of IUP’s Humanities and Social Sciences Building and adjacent to the university’s American, Pennsylvanian and IUP flags.
“Answering the Call” was commissioned by IUP’s Rho Tau Chi. The honor fraternity has 37 active members. Most members are IUP ROTC cadets, but membership also includes current military and military-affiliated students and IUP students who want to support these initiatives. IUP has 1,009 military and military-affiliated students enrolled for fall 2018, an increase of 77 percent since fall 2015.
Rho Tau Chi raised funds for construction and for a competition to design the monument. A selection committee of veterans, students, artists and administrators selected a design by student Anthony Bookhammer.
Bookhammer’s proposal for the monument was a tetrahedron shape with a medallion in the center, a bronze cap, and the phrases, “On shoulders of courage” and “We stand free.” In his artist statement, Bookhammer notes that the tetrahedron is the solid form of a pyramid, and that “pyramids are associated with power, the triangular shape draws the eyes and directs the gaze toward the heavens and that many American architects used pyramidal symbolism, including on the U.S. Seal on United States currency.”
Heather Kaiser, a graduate student in the IUP Department of Art and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, took on completion of the monument as an internship project under the direction of IUP Department of Art faculty member Sean Derry. Kaiser is an 11-year veteran of the military.
Students Cicely Murray, a senior art major from Avella, and Katie Ott used photos from Kaiser’s deployment and travels to create the bronze medallion for the center of the monument.
The granite for “Answering the Call” is the same type of granite used in the national Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. Members of the IUP Facilities group fabricated the concrete foundation for the monument and will create the landscaping around the site, including handicapped access.