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November 9, 2017The VASJ community came together to celebrate and honor veterans with a special Veterans Day assembly.
VASJ holds this assembly each year and finds a graduate who is also a veteran to come and speak to the students. This year, it was Chuck Kortovich, a 1995 graduate of VASJ, and husband of Erin Tobin Kortovich ’93.
He was an active student during his time at VASJ and was a member of Student Council, Peer Ministry, National Honor Society, as well as playing football and baseball.
Kortovich enlisted in the Marine Corps the summer after his junior year at VASJ. He left for boot camp right after his high school graduation and served in the Marines for four years before he was honorably discharged in 1999. After the events of September 11, 2001, he re-enlisted and deployed to Iraq in 2005.
Kortovich was thrilled to be back at his alma mater for Veterans Day, a holiday he says is very important to him.
“Honored and humbled don’t accurately describe how I feel to be here to speak to my fellow Vikings,” Kortovich says.
He shared with the students that the people he met in Iraq were much like those in the U.S. - people who wanted freedom and safety.
“I am forever changed by what I experienced there,” Kortovich says.
Kortovich urged students to talk to the veterans in their lives and ask them about their experiences.
“I think the best way we can honor our veterans is to make sure their stories continue to be told,” Kortovich says. “Keep taking the high road, Vikings. You continue to make your alumni proud.”
Mr. Jim Tobin, Kortovich’s father-in-law, was instrumental in the school’s installation of a Veterans Memorial in the courtyard. Tobin, Kortovich, and Senior Class President Shirley Kennebrew, placed the memorial wreath at the monument.
“We hope the Veterans Memorial is a quiet place of peace, prayer, and reflection,” Tobin says.
Click here to view more photos.
