Centenary College welcomes Major General Jim Dawkins to 8th annual Veterans Day Tribute
SHREVEPORT, LA — Local veterans are encouraged to attend the 8th annual Veterans Day Tribute at Centenary College on Monday, November 11. Veterans Day has been observed on this date in the United States for exactly 100 years, with the first celebration occurring on November 11, 1919.
The solemn ceremony honoring the service and dedication of all veterans will begin at 11:00 a.m. in Anderson Auditorium at Centenary’s Hurley School of Music. The tribute is free and open to the public, and a brief reception in the Anderson Auditorium lobby follows the ceremony.
Major General Jim Dawkins, Jr., commander of the 8th Air Force and the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center at Barksdale Air Force Base, will deliver the keynote address at the tribute. General Dawkins was commissioned in 1989 and has held a variety of operational and staff assignments, including command of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota; the 509th Operations Group at Whiteman AFB, Missouri; and the 338th Combat Training Squadron, an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance training squadron at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. His staff assignments include positions at the Joint Staff, U.S. Strategic Command, Headquarters International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, the Department of Energy, and the National Security Council. Dawkins is a command pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours in fighter, reconnaissance, and bomber aircraft.
The tribute includes music from the Centenary College Choir and showcases veterans among Centenary’s student body as well as the faculty and administration. Centenary student and veteran Nikka Luman will read the official Presidential Veterans Day Proclamation.
Parking for the Veterans Day Tribute is available on Woodlawn Avenue.
For more information, please contact Connie Whittington at cwhittington@centenary.edu or 318.869.5101.