November 22, 2024

GCCC to Host Retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel for Veterans Day

GCCC

[Garden City, KS] Oct. 31, 2019 – Garden City Community College will be hosting retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. J. Scott Whitaker on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019 at 10 a.m. in the Pauline Joyce Fine Arts Auditorium.

Col. Whitaker retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2015, following more than three decades of service and multiple military honors. The event featuring one of today’s modern-day warriors is free, open to the public, and is being organized by the Marine Corps Veterans of Western Kansas.

The event will be held in part to celebrate the annual U.S. Marine Corps Birthday, Nov. 10, and Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2019. The Marine Corps was established on Nov. 10, 1775, to augment naval forces in the Revolutionary War, making the centuries-old military force 244 years old this year.

Prior to his retirement, Col. Whitaker’s last assignment was at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., as a Special Project Officer, Installations and Logistics, after he returned from Afghanistan in 2014. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering.

For more information, please contact Leonard Hitz at 620-275-1650 or nlhitz09@wbsnet.org.
Hitz, a member of the Marine Corps Veterans of Western Kansas, currently serves as a member of the GCCC Board of Trustees.