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The Rev. Brittany Longsdorf guided the day\u2019s observance, which included reflective readings and interfaith prayers, the observing of silence, and the ritual of laying flowers to honor the service and sacrifice of veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Castonguay, 41, grew up in downtown Lewiston and, after graduating from Lewiston High School, joined the Army as a way to start a career through the G.I. Bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a veteran, he\u2019s a member of the American Legion and the VFW and supports various veterans\u2019 charities, such as the Travis Mills Foundation. At Bates, he\u2019s contributed to Human Resources staff-engagement programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We caught up with Castonguay after Veterans Day, on a sunny morning when he and his team were working outside Rand Hall. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful view of campus here,\u201d he said, looking toward Gomes Chapel and the Historic Quad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We asked him about his service and his thoughts about Veterans Day at Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay Burns:<\/strong> What prompted you to join the military?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe Castonguay:<\/strong> There\u2019s a bunch of things that go into a decision like that. The biggest one is I wanted to go to college for art. I loved drawing and painting growing up. One of my high school teachers went to art school, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps, but I knew I couldn\u2019t afford the tuition. I come from a really poor family, so the GI Bill was a way to continue my art education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I also wanted to have a family eventually, so I needed to get started with a career. Growing up in downtown Lewiston, there weren’t a lot of people who were doing career things where I was living. I didn\u2019t know what to do, so I figured, \u201cI can join the military.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n JB<\/strong>: How did the experience impact you, then and now, as a 14-year colleague on this campus? How did you adjust to civilian life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>: I got through it by talking to other veterans and going to groups. Talking with them about readjusting and feeling comfortable really helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have a lot of ideas about how the world works when you’re young and you have these fantasies of what you can do or what the world is going to do for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I lost some really close friends in combat, and it took a long time to process that and find ways to move on. I ended up using them as motivation to be who I am, at least on a personal level and on pretty much every level. I try to do the best I can because they don’t have the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perspective is a big thing \u2014 in life, in art, and the military. A lot of things are easier when you\u2019ve faced harder things. If I\u2019m having a bad day at work, it\u2019s still better than any day at war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JB<\/strong>: When Bates Veterans Plaza was created, one of the project committee members was Dan Sands of Facility Services, who retired in 2019 as manager of carpentry, painting, and masonry. He meant a lot to you, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>: He\u2019s a mentor. Dan is a Vietnam veteran who taught me a lot about being a great veteran on this campus \u2014 powerful, friendly, funny, kind, and passionate about veterans\u2019 issues, and connected to the community. He had a different experience coming back, but similar experiences while deployed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I\u2019m at the plaza, I\u2019m thinking about what I learned from Dan added into my own personal experiences, and it means a lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n JB<\/strong>: Do you still create art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>: Yes, more through woodworking and metalworking. It still gives me that same feeling of creation I had when working with charcoals or oils on canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JB<\/strong>: What was your rank in the military?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>: I was a private first class. Losing friends made me realize the military wasn\u2019t for me. It takes a special kind of person to do that and continue to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JB<\/strong>: What are your thoughts on the meaning of Veterans Day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>: There’s a lot of building blocks under everything we see, and one of the building blocks under our society and our country are those military veterans. Honoring them \u2014 even in small ways \u2014 is crucial. Memorial Day acknowledges those who have passed, but any effort to recognize veterans, I\u2019ll take it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We caught up with Army veteran Joe Castonguay after Veterans Day, on a sunny morning when he and his grounds crew team were clearing leaves outside Rand Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":166471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[39,14,220,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-highlights","category-faculty-staff","category-service","category-society-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166464"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166484,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166464\/revisions\/166484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/11\/241111_Veterans_Day_0441.webp\")
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