By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

TALMA — Monica Clennon is a fourth-generation veteran.

Clennon, who lives near Talma, followed in the footsteps of her great-grandfather, grandfather and father by entering the military. While they all served in the Army however, she picked the Navy.

She’s originally from Fulton County, being born at Akron. Clennon was raised in Porter County after her family moved there for a job opportunity for her father when she was a baby.

Clennon opted to join the military in her twenties as a way to pay for her college degree.

“I certainly enjoyed traveling … and I needed to learn something that would be marketable (for a job),” she said. “So the Navy offered me a lot more training, and a lot more traveling, and I finished my degree and … got to see the world or at least part of it anyway.”

Clennon went to Recruit Training Command in Orlando, Fla., for the eight weeks of her basic training. Her next stop was at apprenticeship school in Meridian, Miss. She was trained as a personnel specialist, doing administrative work.

She was first stationed in Guam for two and a half years, working with “people’s service records, or their pay records, ID cards that kind of thing.”

She went next to Bremerton, Wash, for a little more than four years and spent several after that in Jacksonville, Fla.

She switched to the Navy Reserve after that.

“By that time, I had a spouse and a couple of kids,” said Clennon.

She’s been married to Chuck Clennon for 38 years. They have two children: Tim, a current member of the Navy himself, and Amanda, with three grandchildren as well.

Chuck worked as civilian firefighter on military bases while Monica was in the Navy.

She would serve a total of 22 years in the military and also travel to Japan, the Philippines, North and South Korea, Italy and Spain while in it.

“I didn’t finish my degree until after I had retired … and that’s kind of weird because I joined the Navy so I could get my degree, but life plans change,” she said. “I just enjoyed (serving in the military) and I stuck around, so I kept re-enlisting.”

“I enjoyed the camaraderie with the people that I worked with, and we had plenty of fun times and good times,” she continued. “I certainly enjoyed the structure … and it’s where you can depend on the people you work with.”

Clennon now serves as historian for American Legion Post 36 in Rochester archiving items, and is a member of the Fulton County Honor Guard, helping pay tribute to veterans at their funerals. She was responsible for obtaining a vehicle to transport the Guard members around and getting it fixed up, with Hoffman Body Shop of Akron redoing the outside of the vehicle for free.

“I also do the flag education (at area schools), which I take a great deal of pride in doing because it’s really nice to know that there’s a lot of 9- and 10-year-olds that have been trained on flag etiquette and flag history,” she said.

Clennon said on Veterans Day, “it’s nice to be recognized for what (military members have done) for the benefits and the freedoms and all the luxuries that we have as Americans.”

“It’s humbling because there are many veterans that obviously went way before me and obviously some of them that were injured, some of them that didn’t come home,” she said, noting especially the sacrifices of those who served in World War II.

“Tom Brokaw said it the best: World War II citizens are the greatest generation and the greatest generation gave us what we have. I want to continue on with that,” she said.