For the first time ever, the worldwide Muster roll call will be read in it’s entirety on campus at The Association of Former Students for the 2018 Muster Ceremony.
Beginning at sunrise on April 21, two speakers will read the roll call of Aggies who have passed away in the past year and answer “Here” to honor their memory. Typically, roll call happens during the Muster ceremony and only lists people who fall under the categories established by the Aggie Network, but this will be an all encompassing list which is expected to last hours and will be read by selected people who will rotate as needed.
Kathryn Greenwade, vice president of communications and human resources at The Association of Former Students and Class of 1988, said this will be the first time this type of roll call has happened.
“To our knowledge, there has never been a reading of the entire worldwide Muster roll call in a single location on campus,” Greenwade said. “The campus Muster has always included students and then a few selected others, including the honored reunion class, professors and maybe a few others. There has never been a single reading that included every name, so this year will be the first time we will do that.”
According to the Muster website, 1,612 names will be called this year.
“We have a group of about 50 volunteers, which include A&M administrators, leadership of the Association, of the 12th Man Foundation, of the Texas A&M Foundation, student leadership [and] class agents from the Class of ‘68, which are the honored class for this Muster,” Greenwade said. “This group of volunteers will be reading each name and then someone will answer ‘Here’ for each name.”
The roll call will be viewable live online at AggieNetwork.com. The audio will be played along with rolling images of the university and previous Muster ceremonies.
“I think it’s important because we want to make sure that every Aggie has someone answered ‘Here’ for them,” Greenwade said. “And this provides a way for us to ensure that happens.”
David Pham, recreation, park and tourism sciences junior and external relations coordinator for the Aggie Muster Committee, said the on-campus Muster will remain the same and consist of Aggies who fall under the Aggie Network’s established criteria.
Pham said there are 113 names on the roll call for the on-campus Muster ceremony.
“We have the Roll Call for the Absent that is read at the ceremony, so it’s usually all the names of Aggies who fit the criteria for campus Muster,” Pham said. “Such as current students, some family members of current students, professor of tenor, Aggies who lost their lives on active duty and so forth.”
Pham said the reading at the Association will include everyone in the worldwide roll call. He said the method of one person reading the roll call and another person saying “Here” will ensure each Aggie is spoken for.
“In the past I believe it’s to where it’s just displayed on the screen, it’s just scrolled up throughout the day, but this time they are doing a live reading of it,” Pham said. “As for this year’s ceremony, for the roll call it’s still going to be the same, we still have a little bit over 100 names read and honored at the campus Muster.”