Samford University celebrated Veterans Day 2025 while honoring School of Arts professor Scott Fisk with the combat action badge.
Fisk, who chairs the Department of Art and Design, was entering his first semester teaching at Samford when terrorists toppled the World Trade Center towers in 2001. A photojournalist in the Army Reserve, he soon was transferred into a three-person military history detachment and sent to Iraq.
“We weren't a combat unit. We didn't carry rifles or run patrols. Our mission was communication, and my job was to tell the army story through photographs, graphic design and words,” he said.
Fisk’s team embedded with combat units who encountered “unpredictable situations” in which they battled insurgents. He captured photographs and interviews that were preserved future for research. Fisk was 30 years old at the time, documenting the war stories of college-age soldiers.
“I listened to these stories that felt impossibly heavy for people that were so young,” he said. “When we came under fire, my job was to raise my camera. On one mission, a sniper's bullet hit the wall a few feet from my head. On others, mortar rounds landed close enough to remind me of how fragile life could be.”
Fisk grew emotional recounting the support he received from family and colleagues upon returning to Samford. “Above all, I believe it was God's Grace that brought me back safely,” he said.
Retired Col. John J. Boyd, who led the military history detachment, first nominated Fisk for the combat action badge two decades ago. He was on hand at Sherman Circle to present Fisk with the long-awaited honor.
The university’s cathedral brass ensemble performed the national anthem, the Washington Post march by John Phillips Sousa, and an Armed Forces salute, which referenced the fight songs of all five U.S. military branches.
Samford’s a cappella choir performed “The Lord’s Prayer” before a moment of silence gave way to a bugler playing “Taps.”
“Collectively, we owe a debt of gratitude to all of those who have bravely served us in defense of the freedoms we enjoy and our very way of life,” Samford President Beck A. Taylor offered in a closing prayer. “God, give us hearts of gratitude for those, past and present, who serve and protect us. As we offer these prayers of gratitude, we also pray fervently for peace. God, you are the author of peace. Rain down your peace on our community, our country and our world. Allow the peace of Christ to invade our spirits, to conquer our conflicts, and to win our hearts, and in doing so, may conflicts that require the blood and sacrifice of those we honor today, may they cease.”
