MORGANTOWN – The second floor of the Mountainlair is now home to The Mountaineer Bunker.
Officially, the bunker is called the Veteran and Military Family Support Headquarters and the 2,500 square-foot space will provide a wide selection of programs to help support student veterans and others with a connection to the military, Jerry Wood, director of veteran and military programs, said.
The facility will offer programs and services to help the roughly 1,000 military-connected students at WVU with their academics, career or really whatever they need to succeed, Wood said.
Things like working will faculty and staff at WVU when members of the guard or reserves are called to duty are among the services the bunker offers.
Wood said the center has always been needed. The bunker has a picture of a WW2 veteran receiving counseling about his education benefits in 1946 or 1947.
Reactions to the bunker have been positive and it shows student veterans that WVU is committed to doing all it can to support them, he said.
Wood, a West Virginia native and veteran, said the bunker took about a year to go from vision to reality.
WVU President E. Gordon Gee and President and CEO of the WVU Alumni Association Sean Frisbee, a retired Air Force colonel, had a conversation about how they could advance support for the university’s veteran and military students.
That conversation resulted in the creation of an advisory team and from that team the bunker become a reality.
“The collaboration and cooperation on and office campus was phenomenal,” Wood said.
He said going forward, the challenge is make the best use of the facility to help and support students and their families.
Everyone is welcome at the bunker and Wood said it provides a great opportunity for veterans to share military culture and what it means to serve.
