UF's annual Saluting Those Who Serve event is on Saturday when UF hosts Vanderbilt at Exactech Arena. (File photo)
Gators Saluting Those Who Serve at Saturday's Game
Friday, January 20, 2017 | Men's Basketball
The Gators will recognize several different military and public service personnel.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Gators will hold their annual Saluting Those Who Serve on Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Vanderbilt game, recognizing and honoring military veterans and other local first responders. Details of the event and those being recognized are below.
- Saluting Those Who Serve presented by Cox Communications
- Join us prior to the game in Alligator Alley between gates 3 and 4 as Cox will give fans the experience to fly in an awesome, acrobatic jet formation and feel like some of the military's most elite pilots via the 360 degrees virtual reality stations. Cox, the Official Video and Internet Provider of the Florida Gators.
- The UF ROTC will present the United States flag.
- The UF Collegiate Veterans will be honored during the game, along with local first responders.
- Kyle Peterson: Detective Kyle Peterson of the University of Florida Police Department as a member of UFPD's Critical Incident Response Team & Honor Guard. In 2014 he was named the officer of the year and received awards from Mother's Against Drunk Driving in 2014 & 2015.
- Bobby White: Has been a Gainesville Police Department patrol officer since 2008, he is now known to many as the "Basketball Cop". In 2016 Bobby founded the Basketball Cop foundation with the mission to improve the relationship between youth in the country & law enforcement. The foundation has supplied 40 basketball goals & 100s of basketballs to 28 different police agencies across the country.
- At halftime Cox & the Gators will recognize 3 special veterans:
- Kirby Stewart: A Florida native who entered the United States Air Force in 1951 as a Radio/ECM operator. He flew in 33 combat missions over Korea and returned from duty in 1953. Kirby went on to gain his Bachelor of Physical Education in 1957, a Master of Public Health and a Doctor of Education, all from the University of Florida.
Kirby Stewart - Stephen Dodd: Stephen joined the US Army in 1967 and spent 9 months in Germany before volunteering to go to Vietnam in 1968. He volunteered to go to an infantry line unit and was assigned to the 5th infantry. He spent over 11 months as an infantryman and tunnel rat earning a combat infantry badge, 2 purple hearts and 3 bronze stars medals. After his service was completed, Stephen brought his family to Florida in 1995, where the University of Florida gave his oldest daughter a 4 year scholarship.
Stephen Dodd - Russell "Star" Smith: A 1942 graduate of New Smyrna Beach High School, enrolled in UF and became a lifelong Gator because at the time he was too young to enlist for WWII. At the age of 18, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he became a radar navigator on a B-29 aircraft. He flew 23 missions, but the most notable was to help provide air-seas rescue cover for the Enola Gay, while she dropped the world's first atomic bomb. Lt. Smith was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. After WWII, Smith returned to UF to earn a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. This WWII Veteran and UF grad has been a football season ticket holder for nearly 50 years.
Russell "Star" Smith
- Kirby Stewart: A Florida native who entered the United States Air Force in 1951 as a Radio/ECM operator. He flew in 33 combat missions over Korea and returned from duty in 1953. Kirby went on to gain his Bachelor of Physical Education in 1957, a Master of Public Health and a Doctor of Education, all from the University of Florida.
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