The audience goes silent. The lights in the room are completely shut off, and nothing is visible but the screen on stage. The screen is entirely black except for several names that appear in white.

Each name is a man or woman who was killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Each of those men and women had lived within 100 miles of New Albany. The chilling silence lasts for two minutes.

Diane Reid, senior lecture of communication and organizer of the veteran event on Nov. 13, holds an event every two years at IU Southeast. She said this silent memorial is the heaviest moment of the entire evening.

“We try to keep it fairly light most of the time, and celebratory,”  Reid said.

This year’s theme was, “America, I Gave My Best to You.” Performances included the 113th Army Dragoon Brass Quintet from Ft. Knox, Ladies for Liberty singers, Motion Studio dance team and readings from IU Southeast communications students.

Reid said she got the idea for the program from an interviewing class she taught in the early 1990s. She said she assigned her students a project to interview veterans within the area as a form of gratitude. She pitched her idea for an entire program dedicated to these veterans to Joanna Goldstein, who was the dean of the School of Arts and Letters at the time, and the veterans program has existed ever since.

Reid said has gathered assistance from IU Southeast’s music departments and graphic design students throughout the years to work on the program.

“We’ve all done this as kind of a group project,” Reid said.

Though the music program was unable to participate this year, Reid said she received plenty of help in other areas. Reid teaches a class at IU Southeast called Oral Interpretation of Literature, and students from the class volunteered to read a piece scripted by Reid.

The readings, Reid said, featured letters that soldiers had written home from being away at war. The communications students did a reading of the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae toward the end of the evening.

Having a son in the military, Reid said celebration of veterans is something of personal importance to her. But there’s something she said she hopes that everyone can take away from the program:

“A feeling of sincere gratitude for what we have in our country, and for the contributions of our service men and women in providing us the opportunity to have the freedoms we have,” Reid said.

Marion Pastor, who attended the program as a guest, said it held a personal meaning to her. Pastor said she had heard about the program from volunteering at the Ogle Center. She had made plans to attend the event with her husband, who was a Vietnam War veteran.

Her husband died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 of this year, and Pastor attended alone.

Pastor said she found attending the program important while she cried.  She said she hopes more people will start to honor the veterans, especially returning veterans.

“A lot of them are coming home with brain damage and different things — post-traumatic stress disorder and it doesn’t show,” she said.

Pastor said though her husband didn’t suffer directly from PTSD, she spent much of her life traveling the world and working with those who did.

Pastor said she thinks that veterans events such as this are especially important for the younger generations. She said that they haven’t been exposed to a lot yet. She said that what a person sees on television lacks in comparison to reality.

“It’s not glamorous,” she said.

Pastor said she thinks people should really understand this, especially the men and women looking to sign up.

While the program touched on honoring veterans’ sacrifices, the Ladies of Liberty lightened the mood with songs such as, “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” by the Andrew’s Sisters.

Chancellor Ray Wallace also attended the event. Wallace wore a remembrance poppy and gave a small speech in reference to the veterans.