University to honor Capt. Kermit Evans

At a 2 p.m. ceremony June 1, the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans at Mississippi State will dedicate its new day room in memory of a university alumnus killed in Iraq.

The program honors Air Force Capt. Kermit O. Evans Sr., a 31-year-old Hollandale, Miss. native and 2000 chemical engineering graduate who died in 2006 when the helicopter in which he was traveling made an emergency water landing in Al Anbar Province.

Evans, a member of the 27th Civil Engineering Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, had been deployed with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Iraq’s Balad Air Base. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

At MSU, the Simmons High School graduate was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and had been a walk-on player for a year with the MSU Bulldog football team. He also was a Coca-Cola Foundation Scholar.

The Center for America’s Veterans is located in a former family housing unit.

At the ceremony’s conclusion, a bust of Evans will be unveiled in the dayroom, a recently renovated area at the location specifically designed for the leisure and study activities of campus veterans.

More information on Evans:

• www.arlingtoncemetery.net/koevans.htm

CNJ feature on Evans in 2006:

• www.cnjonline.com/news/evans-19202-iraq-military.html

Center for America’s Veterans at Mississippi State University

• www.veterans.msstate.edu