Gold Star ceremony: Hone ’87 asks Culver students, ‘How will you serve?’

Retired Navy Cmdr. Marc Hone ’87 SS’85 told Culver Academies students that gathering once a year to remember the school’s alumni who died in war is not enough, saying their sacrifice deserves more recognition than only on Memorial Day.

“Their sacrifice is actually a challenge, daring us to live each day differently, calling us to serve others as we have been served, demanding that we earn their sacrifice,” Hone said during the annual Gold Star ceremony in Memorial Chapel before a standing-room only crowd. 

“The sacrifice of those who we will name aloud today cries out, ‘With all that we have given for you to have the freedom you now enjoy and the life you will live, how will you serve?’ ” Hone said. 

Hone told the students that serving does not mean they have to join a military service, although that is what he chose to do. He said he knew from the age of 7, when he dreamed of being a fighter pilot, that he wanted to be in the military.

He told the students he bullied his parents into sending him to Culver and he had one year to prove it was the right place. He said he focused on taking advanced classes, competing in sports and earning rank and leadership positions.

“Whatever it took, I was all in,” he said.

He did so well at Culver he earned an appointment to the Naval Academy and graduated with merit in 1991, with a political science degree. He also holds master’s degrees in engineering management from Old Dominion University and in government from Regent University. 

Hone served in the Navy for 22 years and was stationed aboard three submarines, deploying twice to the western Atlantic and twice to the Pacific and Arabian Gulf. He also served as an exchange officer to the Royal navy including as part of Britain’s contribution to Operation Iraqi Freedom during the invasion of Iraq.

Hone also served as a liaison officer with Joint Task Force Paladin in Kabul, Afghanistan, protecting U.S. forces, the American Embassy and other agencies from improvised explosive devices.

After retiring from the Navy, he spent more than a dozen years serving in other capacities, developing strategies and guiding senior executive level engagement in the congressional arena between executive branch leaders, members of Congress and key congressional staff.

Hone and his wife Marie have two daughters, Natasha W’10 and Katarina ’19 W’15.

Hone told students they could serve by working in medicine, industry, as a first responder, as a clergy member, as a teacher or in many other roles.

“There are many ways to serve.  Culver has prepared you. From here, it’s up to you,” he said. “When you and I answer the call to serve others, in whatever form that takes, we earn their sacrifice.  In committing ourselves every day to find an answer to the challenge, ‘How will we serve?’ we consecrate a memorial truly worthy of the staggering costs they paid.”

Hone said that he remembered the Veterans Day ceremonies at Culver distinctly for the three years he was a student here, but he doesn’t remember the Gold Star ceremonies quite as well.

He said that may be because the Veterans Day ceremonies were outside in the cold. Or because when he was at Culver the library was in Legion Memorial, and he remembers pausing to salute the stars and the Veterans Day ceremonies were held there. Or it may have been because the annual ceremony reminded him how eager he was to join the military.

“The Gold Star ceremony was more abstract to me, and I have few memories of it,” he said.

He said when he was at Culver, the most recent Gold Star alumni had died 15 years earlier. For today’s student, it’s been more than 20 years since Marine 1^st Lt. Andy Stern ’98 was killed on Sept. 16, 2004, while serving in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

“If you are sitting here today, knowing you should feel some bond to the men who we honor but you struggle to connect and you wonder what we should take away from a ceremony of names from wars which you know mostly as history; relax, that’s OK,” he said. “As someone who 38 years ago thought he knew everything he needed to learn here, let me assure you: the most important lessons you can take from this ceremony could take a lifetime to learn.

“What matters most is that you commit to learning them.  So, let’s make a start,” he said.