New Orleans Job Corps Center conducted its last in a series of events to honor staff veterans Tuesday morning as part of National Veterans Awareness Week.

Staff members Jayson Bartolemy, Alvin Clark, Bonita Hall, Leon Hartman, Ken Nora, Rhonda Remo and Lloyd Simoneaux relayed uplifting stories of their military experiences and how those experiences transformed their lives to a group of 50 trainees in the campus auditorium.

CMA trainee Jeffrey Nash, Jr., a veteran of the U.S. Army, told staff and his fellow trainees of his time stationed in Bamberg, Germany from 2006-08.

“My most memorable experience was winning a race between me and my instructors at basic training,” Jeffrey told students. “We were competing on who could hit a tank with an M9 round from an AT 4 mockup and I ended up winning.”

Ms. Rhonda Remo, Jeffrey’s CMA instructor, is also a veteran of the armed forces and the two have shared stories of their common experiences.

“When I found out that my teacher (Ms. Remo) was in the military and that she was in the same country that I was in, I felt kind of relieved in a way because I was able to find someone here at Job Corps that experienced the same things that I did, ” said Jeffrey.