Congressman Steve Womack toured the Arkansas Tech University Student Veterans Lounge inside the Doc Bryan Student Services Center during a visit to his alma mater on Monday, Aug. 26.
The lounge was established in 2018 to provide ATU student veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces with a common area to congregate and fellowship.
It was a collaborative effort between the ATU Service Members and Veterans of America organization, members of Leadership Tech cohort one and the ATU Office of Veteran Services.
The project yielded additional partnerships with the ATU U.S. Army ROTC program, which has installed a display honoring the members of the ATU U.S. Army ROTC Hall of Honor adjacent to the student veterans lounge; and the ATU Division of Advancement, which assisted in the fund-raising effort to remodel the space that would become the lounge and provide furnishings.
Womack is a 1979 graduate of ATU. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Arkansas Tech and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Arkansas Army National Guard upon completing the ATU U.S. Army ROTC program.
Womack spent more than a decade in the radio business before accepting a position as executive officer for the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas. He has served in a variety of command and staff assignments for the National Guard, including battalion commander in Sinai, Egypt, following the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He was named to the Arkansas Officer Candidate Hall of Fame in 2011.
A 2014 inductee into the ATU Hall of Distinction, Womack has represented the Third Congressional District of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2010.
Following his tour of the student veterans lounge, Womack hosted a town hall meeting at ATU’s Witherspoon Auditorium.
Photographed (from left-to-right): Jason Velazquez, student worker in the Arkansas Tech University Office of Veteran Services; Shelly Hall, staff member in the ATU Office of Veteran Services; Congressman Steve Womack; Madalyn Cargile, student worker in the ATU Office of Veteran Services; and Cargile’s service dog, Moe.
