Cong. Will Hurd To Speak At Campus Muster

Newly elected Cong. Will Hurd, a 1999 Texas A&M graduate who was student body president his senior year, will be the university’s 2015 campus Muster speaker. The annual ceremony, held on April 21, honors the memories of Texas A&M current and former students who died during the previous year.

Campus Muster, which is student-led, traditionally packs the 12,500-seat Reed Arena and is the largest of the more than 300 Muster ceremonies held throughout Texas and elsewhere in the nation, as well as numerous locations abroad.

Hurd served as the student body president during the collapse of Bonfire in 1999, and he is credited with providing exemplary leadership following that tragedy through a variety of means, including helping organize the efforts of fellow students who volunteered to help rescue crews.

Hurd says he believes his leadership skills were shaped by that event and he has used the lessons learned from that fateful night, and his overall Aggie experience to help him succeed.

After graduation, Hurd served as an undercover officer in the CIA in the Middle East and South Asia for nearly a decade, collecting intelligence that influenced the national security agenda.

Upon leaving the CIA, he became a senior adviser with a cybersecurity firm, covering a wide range of complex challenges faced by manufacturers, financial institutions, retailers and critical infrastructure owners. He was a partner with a strategic advisory firm helping businesses expand into international markets.

Last November Hurd was elected to the 114th Congress as U.S. Representative from the 23rd District of Texas, which includes San Antonio. He currently serves on the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform and chairs the Information Technology Subcommittee, along with serving on the Homeland Security Committee and is vice chair of the Border and Maritime Subcommittee.

At each Muster ceremony around the world, the speaker will be followed by the “Roll Call For The Absent” which is a reading of the names of those from that area who have died in the past year, along with those of other classmates or friends, as requested. As each name is called, a family member or friend will answer “Here,” and a candle will be lit.

Following the candle-lighting ceremony in Reed Arena, the Ross Volunteer Company, which serves as the honor guard for the governor of Texas, will march in to fire a rifle volley followed by a special arrangement of “Taps.”

For more information about Muster, including a list of the “Roll Call For The Absent” and off-campus Muster sites, see The Association of Former Students’ website at: http://www.aggienetwork.com/muster/.
For more information about the Aggie Muster Committee and the 2015 campus Muster, visit http://muster.tamu.edu/.