Bin Laden's death causes campus party

When the Norwich campus learned that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 911 attacks, had been killed, it erupted.

The majority of the student body rushed to the Upper Parade Ground to celebrate this long-awaited victory for the United States and to display their pride, enthusiasm and patriotism..

President Barack Obama stated in a live television address Sunday night that "the United States has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and the terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children."

When this news reached Norwich students, they celebrated.

Max Reagan, a 20–year-old freshman from Lowell, Mass., majoring in computer security, said that upon arriving to the UP, "I saw a lot of mayhem going on."

He elaborated, "I saw people running around toilet-papering the UP, fire alarms going off, people throwing flares, and people trying to stomp out fires."

Lisa Belanger, a 20-year-old junior majoring in nursing from Manchester, N.H., recounted, "When I finally got out there, about 15 minutes after it started, I found out that bin Laden had been shot. I saw people running around with either military service flags or American flags."

The bugles sounded, cannons fired and the yelling and cheers never ceased. Students shot off fireworks and threw glow-sticks.

Fires were started and put out by students.

Fire alarms were pulled in almost all the dorm buildings. Flags were raised and students ran with them held high. The American national anthem was sung with pride amongst the scores of students present.

Brigadier General Michael Kelley, vice president for student affairs and commandant of cadets, arrived on the UP shortly after the celebration began.

"I was home asleep and my wife and son were awake. They heard the hoopla and the cannon go off, so they woke me," he said.

"I called security to see what was going on," Kelley explained, "and then I decided to get dressed and come up, and got there at about 11:15 p.m. and it was in full go by that point."

Kelley proceeded to walk amongst the students and evaluate the severity of the situation. "My initial sizing up of it was the students just being exuberant," he said.

"I was surprised, at first, to see the number of students involved," he said, "and it took me a minute or two to put into context that a lot of these students are between 21- and 22-years-old so for half of their lives ... they can remember this has been a huge, big deal."

After this realization Kelley found himself in the position to speak to the student body. The students surrounded him and cheered him on and went silent waiting for him to speak.

In the short speech he gave, Kelley confirmed bin Laden's death.

"Tonight, my thoughts go out to the hundreds of thousands of American sons and daughters who have fought for tonight, who have made a difference, who never gave up, and who continue to do their duty 24-7 around the world," Kelley said.

"I think of my own daughter, I think of many others, who have fought for our freedoms and continue to do so," he continued.

Kelley then attempted to disperse the crowd; however, the students continued with their celebration.

Later, reflecting on the event, Kelley said, "I didn't have a clue I was going to be making a speech."

"I simply thought that where I was going with that was, ‘Well, OK guys let's disperse and it's time to call it a day,' but for some reason there was some desire to have somebody speak and I didn't know what I was going to say," he admitted.

Regardless, Kelley was able to muster together a speech that made students proud.

Ciara Plymale, a 17-year-old freshman from Great Falls, Mont., double majoring in psychology and political science, said "(General Kelley) had an amazing speech and I think that he handled it very well."

"Generally, I think that it was a good thing for the (students) to be able to do everything out in the open with General Kelley's support," she said.

This event was admittedly chaotic; however, "I never felt unsafe. Walking around through the crowd I never felt like I was going to get gang-tackled," Kelley said.

"There was no furniture coming out of windows, there was no Coke machines coming out. There was no belligerent damage to property and so all of that tells me that ‘Yea we were excited, yea, we were in euphoria, but we were also thinking about what was going on around us,"' he said.

Plymale agreed, "I didn't feel unsafe. No, not at all, these people are my friends. Everyone knew nothing serious was going to happen; it was just celebrating and having fun."

"Yes, there were fires and maybe a little grass got burnt but nothing really (was destroyed) on campus," she said.

Belanger said, "I don't think it was uncalled for, for us to have this kind of a celebration. Considering that the (American military) has been going after bin Laden for over 10 years."

Kelley recognized the uproar for what it was, a celebration. "My aim became to allow the students to have some time to celebrate and to blow off some steam, but in a way where nobody got hurt and no damage to property occurred," he said.

However, "There was one guy that was hurt, and I am concerned about that. I heard he was doing OK though," he said.

"Then I thought, ‘Well there's a thousand people involved. So it is reasonable to expect that somebody would get hurt,'" he explained, "but I always want it perfect."

"The property damage," Kelley admitted "I'll be perfectly honest, it was minimal to none."

"Yea, there's some toilet paper out on the trees," he said, "but what's unique about Norwich is the respect that students have for each other and our surroundings."

"So what I see going on after things broke up; I saw people out there, the students, out there with trash bags picking up trash," Kelley recalled.

"There's no place else you would ever see that," he said. "They were picking up the toilet paper and stuff that was on the ground; there was a couple of guys who were sweeping up broken glass," he shared.

"I was really proud of our students for how they conducted themselves," Kelley proclaimed.