HPU'S PATRIOTISM SHINES THROUGH ON VETERANS DAY.

• Position: High Point University

After nine months in Vietnam, working as a helicopter mechanic and keeping soldiers safe, Larry Long walked off the plane at a California airstrip and saw them clustered behind a fence.

War protesters.

They were shouting, calling Long and his fellow soldiers all kinds of names that Long could barely believe. Why?

Long went back to Illinois, with those accusations ringing in his ears.

He was 21 when he returned in 1967, a week before Christmas. Long is now 71, a longtime truck driver who retired in North Carolina to be close to his daughter and his three granddaughters who call him "Papa."

Ask him about that incident long ago, and he still gets agitated. He can't forget.

Fast forward to today.

In November, Long came to High Point University for its Veterans Day Celebration inside the Millis Athletic Center. He had never been before. He came wearing a jacket with "Vietnam Veteran"across his shoulders, and he sat in the middle of a crowd of 1,100 people.

He came to see--and listen.

Onstage, in front of an American flag 60 feet long and 30 feet high, an HPU orchestra played patriotic songs, HPU President Nido Qubein delivered a patriotic message and J. Quincy Collins, a former fighter pilot, talked about his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

The program lasted two hours. Long loved it all. But the best part?

HPU students.

They stopped him, shook his hand and said, "Thank you."

"You don't know what that means to us," Long says. "I have so much pride to see how the world has changed. Kids are starting to understand about our country, and I know it was heartfelt. I don't want someone giving me lip service. These kids meant it."

On the other side of Millis nearthe front sat Tammy Davis.

She's a 20-year veteran with the High Point Police Department. She handles evidence. She's also a Marine. She served six years and trained Marines how to protect themselves against chemical warfare.

Like Long, she had never been to HPU's celebration. And like Long, she felt overwhelmed by what she saw.

"I really appreciate the university doing this," says Davis, 48. "I like their backbone. High Point has a clear idea of what they stand for, and what they put forth in their students. They aren't afraid to say it."

Students like Connor Harris, a senior from Trinity, North Carolina, majoring ii event management.

Harris volunteered to work the celebration, and in the nip of a November morning, he stood outside Millis with other HPU students speaking and shaking...