Dear members of the campus community,
Today, in remembrance of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks–and to commemorate the heroic recovery efforts that followed—Gettysburg College will fly a SOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) American flag atop the Cupola of Pennsylvania Hall.
The SOCOM flag will supplant the College’s customary “Old Glory” flag, which bears 34 stars, just as it did when Penn Hall served as a hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.
The SOCOM flag was recently donated to Musselman Library by Rev. Lawrence Recla, who served for more than nine months as a Red Cross chaplain within a temporary morgue at Ground Zero. Rev. Recla was a campus ministry intern here in the early 1970s and was later ordained at Christ Chapel.
We lost three Gettysburgians on 9/11: Tim Betterly ’81, P’12, P’15; Doug DiStefano ’99; and Joe Hasson ’89. I encourage you to take a moment today to remember the many who were lost as a result of this tragic day in our nation’s history.
Sincerely,
Janet Morgan Riggs ’77
President