The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will hold a special Memorial Day observance in honor of those who died while serving our country at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 29, at the Donaghey Student Center Ledbetter Hall. 

Lt. Col. David Knight Jr. will give the invocation, while Sharon Downs and Karen Kuralt will sing the national anthem. Members of the Arkansas National Guard will perform “Taps.”

Kathy Oliverio, director of military student success, will give the welcome and closing remarks. Michelle Beck, president of Students Affected by the Military, will also give remarks.

Col. Shawn Daniel of Little Rock will serve as the keynote speaker. Daniel graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1993 and was first commissioned as an infantry officer with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In 2001, Daniel commanded a U.S. Army Ranger unit and led a parachute assault in Afghanistan. He spearheaded U.S. and NATO efforts in the southern portion of the country in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and deployed again in June 2002.

Following command and general staff college studies, Daniel deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He returned to the 75th Ranger Regiment in 2007 to assume duties as the regimental strategic plans and requirements officer and as the regimental executive officer. During his tenure at the Ranger Regimental Headquarters, he deployed several times to Afghanistan, serving as the operations officer for the Special Operations Joint Task Force in continuing support for Operation Enduring Freedom.

Daniel took command of 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Airborne at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska in June 2010 and once again deployed to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Force Assistance mission. Following redeployment, he attended the U.S. Army War College Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

His final assignment was at the U.S. Special Operations Command Headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, as the director of the Afghanistan Division in the Operations Directorate. Daniel now lives in Little Rock with his wife, Dena, and children, Katie Grace and Jake.