Dad, student, soldier: Veterans Day has special meaning for ’Berg senior

Senior Michael Dalton knows exactly what he’ll be doing following graduation in six months. In fact, he’s known for four years.

About the time he graduates in May with his degree in business administration, Michael also will be commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves, where he’ll serve as an engineer officer.

He came to Heidelberg as a football student-athlete but missed playing his freshman year because of basic training. He suited up his sophomore year but that off-season, his son, Hudson, was born, and that changed his focus.

Today, he’s “Dad, student and Army soldier” – in that order, traveling to his New London home on weekends to be with his son. While he’s at Heidelberg, though, Michael is making an impact as a co-founder and now president of the Student Military Support Alliance, or SMSA.

In support of military students

Created about a year ago by Nik McAvoy, Caitlyn Weirich and Michael and advised by Dr. Carole Thomas, Heidelberg’s director of Career and Military Services and herself a U.S. Army veteran, SMSA is a group of students working together to navigate military experiences, benefits and plan veteran-related events. They provide judgment-free space for students who currently serve, or have served, along with dependants and those unaffiliated with the military but who just want to show support.

“Carole really led the charge” in getting the SMSA organized with Nik doing a lot of the early groundwork, Michael said. “Raising awareness for our group has been our goal this semester.”

That will happen in large measure on Veterans Day this coming Monday.

Leadership role in HU’s Veterans Day Ceremony

SMSA’s first big project is co-sponsoring this year’s Veterans Day Ceremony at Heidelberg, along with Student Senate and Parkhurst Dining. Michael has taken on a leadership role, along with Student Senators Taylor Ratliff and Ethan Rieman, and Ashley Helmstetter, associate vice president of Advancement, Alumni, and Community Relations, to ensure that the ceremony goes off without a hitch.

It’s a natural fit and “a step in the right direction” for SMSA’s progress. In addition to helping to plan the event, Michael hit the pavement to hang event posters at local businesses and veterans' support organizations to invite the community, and especially all service members, to attend Heidelberg’s ceremony.

Michael also will deliver closing remarks at the ceremony, which will include a special dedication of a memorial honoring the service of all of Heidelberg’s alumni veterans. It's scheduled for Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. adjacent to the Campus Center.

“The timing has been impeccable to have the memorial ready in time for our Veterans Day ceremony,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

On the horizon

Michael has been enrolled in Bowling Green State University’s ROTC program for three-plus years. Every Thursday, he travels to BG for classes. Once each semester, the ROTC participants conduct field training exercises as they learn leadership skills, the basics of platoon-level tactics, how to lead a platoon and conduct and lead a mission. Years 3 and 4 involve cadet summer training at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where the ROTC members spent 35 days learning to apply their training from the program.

In year four, Michael is currently serving as a staff member with a much larger role in the ROTC program.

After his commissioning ceremony, which will likely take place at Heidelberg, he’ll continue with the U.S. Army Reserves, which will be nothing new. He’s been enlisted in the Reserves for over four years and was a combat engineer during that time. So he’ll comfortably slide into his role as an engineer officer. being a combat engineer. officially become a member of the U.S. Army Reserves. He feels ready for his Reserves role and plans to pair that with work in construction management after graduation.

The Reserves requires a minimum commitment of six years – one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. But Michael is looking forward to it.

“I’m really excited about it. I have wanted to do this – to take this next step in my career – for a while,” he said.