Veterans honored with event at Mountain Grove’s Arena

Chief Master Sergeant Bryan T. Stuart was the guest speaker for the 18th Annual Veterans Day Celebration was held on Nov. 11 inside a packed Arena at Mountain Grove High School.
He currently serves as the 131st Communications Squadron Senior Enlisted Leader, where he manages cyberspace system analysis and design, programming, systems operation and maintenance, resource management, and security management.
In addition, Chief Master Sergeant Stuart manages and directs network operations in garrison and at deployed locations by performing duties to develop, sustain, and enhance network and electromagnetic capabilities to defend national interests from attack.
In his civilian capacity, Chief Stuart serves as the Director of Global Network Operations and Edge Caching Services for Mastercard, where he manages a global team of network engineers supporting the Fortune 200 company.
His wife, Beth Stuart, is a teacher at Mountain Grove School District, who during the ceremony, was presented the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher award.
Chief Master Sergeant Stuart was once an educator at both the Willow Springs School District (2006-2015) and the West Plains School District (2019-2021), where he taught technology to high school students.
He was an entrepreneur of two IT companies.
His three oldest children (Cody Ward, Caleb Ward and Aiden Stuart) have all enlisted in the Air Force.
Also during the Veterans Day Celebration on Nov. 11, VFW Post No. 3770 Commander John Dodds and former District 18 Commander Russell Olewinski presented students with certificates for a pair of contests.
Winners in the Voice of Democracy Speech contest were 1) Joey Hickcox; 2) Peyton O’Connor; and 3) Silas Klink.
Winners for the Patriot’s Pen Essay were 1) Mari LaMontia; 2) Chloe Roth; and 3) AJ Lynch.
The event included band student JP Dickey playing “Taps” during the honor salute from the American Legion Post No. 30.
Aiden Kumpula, Jacob Crosco and Malacki English, who are recently enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard, presented the colors.
The National Anthem was performed by the Mountain Grove High School Chamber Choir and the Mountain Grove Elementary School’s Kindergarten class sang “Grand Ol’ Flag.”
Students Rehanna Turner, Eden Stumpf and Kyson Hayes led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.