Dawson Barnes: United States Marine Corps
Preston Elrod: United States Army
Christian Chenoweth: United States Army
Brayden Livengood: United States Air Force
Giuseppe LoDuca: United States Naval Academy
Abigail Mongrut: United States Army
Anh Nguyen: United States Army
Colin Rexrode: United States Marine Corps
Jack Zegrac: United States Navy
The ceremony began with a welcome by Mr. Chad Russo, Unit 2 principal, veteran and liaison or representative for Mentor High School. Followed by a color guard presentation by the VFW post 9295.
The Koman-Spreng-Zonneville Military Signing Day gets its name after three veterans who have been active in the Mentor Schools community over the years. Those attending the signing were able to her remarks from one of the named members, Mr. Bob Zonneville, a local WWII veteran.
“They [fellow soldiers] won’t care which political party they belong to,” Mr. Zonneville said in a message of unity. “They don’t care what nationality they are, what church they go to. They’re just very happy, very happy that there are fellow Americans there with them to help fight.” (syncs with video at 9:54).
A fellow Ohioan, Sergeant Moss, from Euclid also gave a keynote address.
“At 19 I didn’t have the answers, but I had a mindset that I wasn’t going to settle for mediocre,” Sergeant Moss said. “I was going to push myself into something uncomfortable, something demanding, something that would force me to grow every single day… It [joining the military] was the best decision that I could have made. It gave me direction. It gave me purpose.” (Syncs with video at 14:25).
Following the remarks, all nine Mentor Students were given the graduation cord for military enlistment, as their respective military officers gave remarks about all nine students.
From all of us at Cardinal Nation and Mentor High School we wish all signees good luck and thank them for their service! See below for a video of the entire ceremony.
