Emotional ceremony honors CMU alum killed in Afghanistan, other local veterans

PITTSBURGH — An emotional ceremony in Oakland Monday honored local veterans who have died fighting for America's freedom.

The Steel City Naval ROTC, made up of students from Carnegie Mellon University, Pitt and Duquesne, organized the event on the Oakland campus to remember one of their own.

The ceremony paid a special recognition to a CMU alumnus who died leading a counterattack in Afghanistan in September.

Lt. Col. Christopher "Otis" Raible died Sept. 14 while leading a counterattack against enemy forces at Camp Boston in Afghanistan.

Raible graduated from CMU in 1995 and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.

On Sunday night, midshipmen from the Steel City ROTC painted the fence on CMU's campus. The fence is a long-standing fixture that allows students to voice their opinions or causes by painting the structure.

The event also honored veterans of World War II and Vietnam. More than 90 ROTC cadets and several veterans participated in a flag-raising ceremony.

Harold Huckstein, a World War II veteran, told Channel 11’s Alan Jennings that he was 17 years old when he was a sailor aboard a U.S. Navy battleship sent to bomb German soldiers occupying France at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

“I went to Omaha Beach about noon. We touched and began discharge into the land,” Huckstein recalled.

WPXI