Kentuckians at War

A WEKU Veterans Day Special: 11-11-11

WEKU

Published November 11, 2011 at 9:38 AM EST

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Phillip McKenzie is enrolled at the University of Kentucky where’s he’s studying business management.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky

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Travis Martin earned a master’s degree in English literature at Eastern Kentucky University. The 26 year-old is currently a P-h-D candidate at the University of Kentucky.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky

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Former Marine and world traveler Rocco Pepe’s an officer with the Georgetown/ Scott County Emergency Management Agency. Pepe graduated with honors from Eastern Kentucky University, majoring in Homeland Security.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky

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28 years old, Stephanie Murphy still has one foot in the military…a member of the Kentucky Air National Guard…and the other foot in medicine as a graduate student in the physician’s assistant program at the University of Kentucky.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky

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Today Jeremy Bowen is far from the horror of war and Fallujah. He’s a graduate student at UK, working on a degree in social work with an emphasis on alcohol and substance abuse.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky.

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Jonathon Herst, who lost a leg in Iraq, is finishing work on a Master of Social Work degree at UK.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky.

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Eric Perry continues to put to use skills learned in the Navy. He’s enrolled at the University of Kentucky, studying mechanical engineering. And’s he’s still in the Navy Reserves.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky.

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24 year-old Noah Melgar studies agricultural economics at U-K.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky

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The 23 year-old Brandon Lawrence is human/environmental sciences and psychology major at the University of Kentucky.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky.

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23 year-old Rebecca Stinsky is enrolled at the University of Kentucky, majoring in Social Work.

Nunn Center, University of Kentucky.

Veterans of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home. Withdrawals are underway in both countries. While the wars are winding down, their legacy will live on in America through their veterans. Over the last ten years, an estimated two-point-three million Americans fought in those wars. Today, we hear about their experience through the stories told by eight Kentuckians.

These eight Kentuckians now attend college and their stories were gathered by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky.