Colonel Patricia L. George, Class of 1995
Colonel (Retired) Patricia L. George enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1988 where she obtained the rank of Sergeant before earning an ROTC Scholarship to St. Bonaventure University. Patricia graduated from St. Bonaventure University as a Distinguished Military Graduate and was commissioned as an Adjutant General’s Corps Officer in May 1995.
COL George attended the Adjutant General’s Corps Officer Basic Course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Her first assignment was in Stuttgart, Germany, where she served with 510th Personal Services Battalion (PSB) as a Postal Company Platoon Leader and the Executive Officer of the Personnel Detachment. Remaining with the 510th PSB, she was reassigned to Mannheim, Germany, serving as a Company Commander.
Returning to the United States, she was stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the operations officer of the Pittsburgh Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS). COL George was then assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where she served as Commander of Alpha Detachment, 15th Personnel Services Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. During this assignment, she deployed her unit to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. After 26 months in command, she served as the Officer Strength Manager with the 1st Cavalry Division until June 2005.
Upon redeployment, she was assigned to Alexandria, Virginia, where she served with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command as the Chief of Officer Promotions and the Chief of Officer Evaluation Policy for the Army.
Patricia subsequently served as the S-1 for the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, where she deployed to Mazar Sharif, Afghanistan, in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM.
Following this deployment, she was hand-selected to serve as an Instructor and Executive Officer in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
In 2013 COL George commanded the 11th Battalion, U.S. Military Entrance Processing (MEP) Command, St. Louis, MO. Following command, she became the Chief of the Department of the Army Secretariat, Army Selection Boards, ESPD, HRC, Fort Knox, Kentucky.
After her promotion to Colonel, Patricia was assigned to the Pentagon as the Assistant Director, Military Personnel Division. Colonel George advised Senior Leaders on a full range of joint manpower/human resources policies and procedures for military personnel within OSD.
For her final assignment, she was appointed as the Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Outreach and served as an Assistant Professor for the National War College in Washington, D.C.
After retiring, Patricia continued supporting the Army as a Human Resources Subject Matter Expert Consultant for the North South Consulting Group, LLC. COL George was also chosen to serve as a Faculty Member for the Thayer Leadership Group, where she continues to inspire and build leaders of character by offering leadership and ethics education grounded in time-honored military principles and values-based leadership.
Patricia takes great pride in her loving and supportive family, which includes her husband of over 30 years, Anthony P. George, along with their four wonderful children: Brandon, Cameron, Gabriella, and Noah.
Colonel George was recognized as the Adjutant General Corps Distinguished Member of the Corps for her career contributions in the field of Human Resources Management. She received an honorary Master of Science Degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College following her two-year teaching tenure. Her military awards and decorations include the Distinguished Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit Medal, Bronze Star (1 OLC), Defense Meritorious Service Medal (1 OLC), Meritorious Service Medal (HOW DO YOU WRITE 5 IN CLUSTERS??), Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal (4 OLC, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the NATO Medal with Bronze Star, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge, Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge and the Drill Sergeant Badge.
Patricia has a Master of Science in National Resources Strategy from the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University in Washington D.C. and a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management from Webster University in Webster Groves, MO.
Major Mark W. Hannon, Class of 1947 (posthumous)
Mark was born in Olean on Sept. 11, 1922, the son of the late Mark James and Frances Naoma LeStrange Hannon. Growing up during the Great Depression, he helped his family by taking up a job as a paperboy in Seneca Heights. Mark persevered through this, graduating from Olean High School and shortly afterward enrolling at St Bonaventure in 1940.
He did not get off to a great start- academically or adapting to college life. Mentored by Fr. Thomas Plassmann to “join ROTC or find another college”, Mark promptly found his way to the ROTC Department. He excelled; this was exactly what he needed!
Life had another plan in store for Mark- World War 2. In 1943, a year prior to what would be his graduation, he decided to leave his classmates and join the fight in Europe. Mark fought with the 3rd Army, 65th Division and served in all the major engagements of the European Campaign to include the Battle of the Bulge, culminating with the fall of Berlin. Significantly, he was one of the Officers responsible for security of Nazi Prisoners during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
Upon completion of his Wartime service, Mark returned to Olean and transferred to the Army Reserves, where he served until his retirement in 1982. He completed his degree at St Bonaventure and graduated in 1947. On July 11, 1952, he married the former Carolyn R. Wormer, and over the course of the next several years they had 4 children together. She was very supportive of her husband’s service with the Army Reserves to the point that she allowed him to ‘plan’ their honeymoon in conjunction with his annual training at Ft Drum, NY. This is the first and only time they ‘went to camp’ together. He enjoyed training around the Northeast at places like Cape Cod, Fort Dix, NJ., and of course Ft Drum.
Outside of his service in the Army Reserves, Mark worked as a salesman for the Millcraft Paper Company. He was a lifetime member of Bartlett Country Club, playing golf into his late 90s. He belonged to Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, and was a member of Sacred Heart Church in Portville, where he served as a trustee and was involved in numerous church activities. Mark was also an election inspector for the Village of Portville.
Mark lived a life of service to others, both in and out of uniform. He was not one to seek praise, accolades, or even recognition for his accomplishments. In staying true to his Franciscan upbringing, he talked more about the camaraderie and fellowship he had with his fellow servicemen more than recount ‘war stories’ about his wartime accomplishments as a member of the Greatest Generation. His work did not go unnoticed however. St Bonaventure University President, Sister Margaret Carney awarded Mark an honorary degree in recognition of his unwavering dedication to improving the community and his perseverance through some exceptionally difficult times.
Mark remained in contact with his fellow servicemen, scattered across the country, as late as February of 2024. This is a testimony to the bonds of fellowship he formed during some trying times in our nation. Mark often remarked that “they don’ t make them like that anymore” when recounting his friendships from the Army to his family.
MAJ Mark Hannon passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends on February 5, 2024. His 4 sons, 10 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren keep he and Carolyn’s legacy alive.
Lt. Col. William Kelly, Class of 1980
Lieutenant Colonel William Kelly graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer. His first assignment was with 1-333 FA BN (Lance) where he served as a Platoon Leader, Battery XO, Battalion S-1, and commander of B/1-333 FA BN.
LTC Kelly then went to Korea as the 2ID Support Command S-1 and upon returning to the US was selected to serve as an Assistant Professor of Military Science at Syracuse University.
Willy then went to Hawaii and served with the 25ID artillery and served in the Division Fire Support element. Following that he commanded HHB Divarty and then was the Divarty Assistant S-3.
After completion of the US Army Command and General Staff College, LTC Kelly served as a field artillery battalion S3 (planning officer) and battalion executive officer at 5-17 FA Bn (MLRS) at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. While at Ft. Sill he also served as an MLRS Army requirements officer.
William then served as a HQDA Staff Officer within the Resource Analysis and Integration Office for two years. In this role, LTC Kelly was responsible for representing and enforcing multiple budgets, as well as ensuring the Army Program Objective Memorandum (POM) requirements reflected priorities established/directed by The Army Plan (TAP) and Defense Planning Guidance (DPG).
From 1998 – 2003, LTC Kelly continued service in the Pentagon in the HQDA G1 where he managed activities in the military mobilization and civilian mobilization/ deployment branch. Additionally, he supported the G-1 Personnel Contingency Cell and provided expertise to the Army Operations Center. Willy also was responsible for NEO repatriation plans and policy as well as the synchronization of reserve and civilian personnel mobilization and demobilization operation policy development.
Upon retirement from the Army, he worked as a defense contractor executive responsible for maintenance and development of the Army's institutional training management system. In this role, he eventually worked with the FBI to help investigate and successfully prosecute Department of Defense personnel involved in bribery/extortion schemes with defense contractors.
LTC Kelly is married to Robin Howden Kelly, a 1979 SBU graduate. They have four children and nine grandchildren.
Colonel Jeremy McGuire, Class of 1991
Colonel Jeremy McGuire graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and was a member of the Seneca Battalion from 1987 to 1990. In September of 1991, Jeremy enlisted in the US Army as an Infantryman and served with the 10th Mountain Division serving as an M60 machine gunner and rifle team leader. In April of 1993, Colonel McGuire deployed as a radio telephone operator in support of OPERATION RESTORE HOPE in Mogadishu Somalia, where he successfully participated in over fifty combat and humanitarian support missions.
In June 1995, Colonel McGuire received a commission from Officer Candidate School in the Field Artillery Branch. In August 2000, Colonel McGuire successfully commanded a Paladin Artillery battery in support of Task Force Thunder (2-70AR) during OPERATION INTRISIC ACTION 00-03 in Kuwait.
Colonel McGuire then served a four-year assignment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While stationed at Fort Bragg, he successfully supported the 6th Air Force Special Operations Unit during OPERATION TEAK PISTON in the Philippines as a Psychological Operations detachment leader in 2003. From January 2005 to January 2006, he served in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, coordinating all twenty-seven theater counterfire assets as the XVIII Corps Artillery Deputy G3.
From August 2007 to August 2008, Colonel McGuire served in Parwan, Afghanistan during OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM as a Combat Advisor and Operations Officer in the Regional Police Advisory Command, Central. In 2010, Colonel McGuire transitioned into the Department of Defense Afghan Hands program and served a second tour in Kabul Afghanistan assigned to the International Security Assistance Forces serving as an advisor in the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s Presidential Information Coordination Center. Colonel McGuire then returned to Afghanistan in September 2011, where he served as the 1st Infantry Division Deputy Fire Support Coordinator.
From July 2012 to July 2014, Colonel McGuire commanded 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment on Camp Hovey, South Korea. There he trained, led, and mentored 514 soldiers on the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea contributing to the improved security situation on the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia.
From July 2014 to May 2015, Colonel McGuire served in the Pentagon as a staff officer in the US Army G-3/5/7 Operations Directorate. He also served as the Department of the Army’s Crisis Action Team coordinating the US Army’s logistical and communications effort supporting the 101st Air Assault Division’s response to the Ebola pandemic in Liberia, Africa.
After graduating from US Army School of Advanced Military Science at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Colonel McGuire served as a Combat Advisor to the Afghan 215th Corps commander in Helmand Province and Director of the Combined Joint Operations Center, Resolute Support Headquarters, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE, Kabul Afghanistan from June 2016 to July 2017.
From July 2017 to July 2019, Colonel McGuire served in the Pentagon as the Network and Cyber Program Manager in US Army G-3/5/7 Training and Readiness Directorate.
From July 2019 to March 2022, Colonel McGuire served as the NATO Joint Forces Command Brunssum Headquarters (JFCBS) as the Joint Fires and Effects Branch Chief where he created doctrine and policy enabling the coordination and synchronization of NATO air and land forces.
From March 2022 to May 2023, Colonel McGuire completed his final assignment as the JFCBS Communications Director where he advised the NATO Joint Task Force Commander on communication strategies and communications engagements.
Colonel McGuire holds a Master of Arts in Military Security Policy and Strategy from the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) in Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star (1OLC), NATO Medal (1 OLC), OIF Medal, OEF Medal, OIR Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and Parachutist Badge.
Colonel McGuire retired on 1 June 2023 in Manhattan, Kansas with his wife of 32 years, Suzette Shine McGuire. Jeremy and Suzette enjoy spending as much time possible with their son Patrick, Daughter Shannon, Son-in-Law Dillon Mack and five grandchildren Eleanor, Ada, Jack, Madelynn and Truett, while also serving on the Board of Directors for a Catholic Non-Profit Radio Station, KLOJ “The Light of Jesus”.
Lt. Col. Gerard Monaghan, Class of 1967
Gerard (Jerry) Monaghan graduated from St Bonaventure University in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and was commissioned into the U.S. Army as an Adjutant General Corps officer. He continued to serve for the next 28 years, including tours in Vietnam, Europe, and the Pentagon.
Jerry started his career at Fort Monmouth, N.J., as the Signal Center and School’s replacement company executive officer, ensuring new soldiers in processed and, on completion of training, received orders for their follow-on assignments. This was at the height of the Vietnam War when training soldiers and sending them to forward-deployed units was an exceptionally important, if unappreciated, aspect of our Armed Forces’ mission.
Jerry continued with key staff support functions as adjutant of the NATO/SHAPE Support Group in Belgium. With the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, he served as deputy personnel officer, balancing casualties and replacements during the Cambodian incursion, then as deputy information officer during the division’s redeployment. Finally, as commander of the 18th Military History Detachment, he documented the division’s role, especially through battalion commander oral history interviews. This is another important and seldom-thought-about part of our military. One major factor that separates our Armed Forces from those of other nations is how we study the past to shape how we train for the future. Our experiences, documented by military historians, played a huge role in how we rebuilt our Army in the 1980s.
Although he said he never heard a shot fired (except outgoing), he is proud of his military service, incorporating both his Jandoli School education and the Bona’s ideal that its ROTC graduates would serve with ethics.
Typical Reserve assignments followed, with service with the 399th Civil Affairs Group, 411th Civil Affairs Company and as a Command and General Staff instructor with the 1031st Army Reserve School. As public affairs officer for the 76th Division (Training), he led the national Purple Heart Bicentennial celebration — including art and artifacts exhibits and multi-media presentations that drew thousands, a military history symposium, naval flotillas in two cities and a multi-service international military ball on the USS Intrepid in New York City.
Serving as an Office of the Chief of Public Affairs individual mobilization augmentee from 1984 through 1994, including leading that office’s strategies branch, he also was tasked with several unusual assignments:
- teaching journalism through the Defense Information School’s mini-courses for eight years.
- serving on a team that evaluated the future of public affairs.
- serving on the 1984-5 Armed Forces Inaugural Committee.
- forming and leading an ad hoc military history team researching the National Training Center and Fort Irwin.
- serving as historian for the inactivation of the Army Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center
- serving in the Army War Room during Operations Urgent Fury and Just Cause.
- editing a book on the history of Army Public Affairs (the project was defunded and never published).
His final Reserve assignment was as historian for the Information Systems Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
During Operations Desert Shield/Storm, he was tasked as the Chief of Public Affairs representative to the Joint Staff’s Public Affairs Response Cell in the National Military Command Center war room. This team of Reserve journalists briefed the Defense secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman on what they thought the media would ask (they came up with tougher questions than the media ever asked). After the war, Jerry edited the final Defense Department report to the President and Congress on the Gulf War (a copy of that report is on display in the Jandoli School).
Jerry and his wife, Eileen, have four children, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild on the way. The family has a tradition of service. His great grandfather was wounded at Gettysburg; his father was a World War I Marine. Other relatives served in World War I, II and Korea. Their older daughter married a West Pointer who has since retired from federal service as the Military Academy’s associate dean in charge of research. They are here today, with their oldest child, Kieran. Jerry and Eileen’s younger daughter was the first ROTC graduate from Trinity College in D.C., serving for five years. Their younger son enlisted in time for Gulf I and served in the 3rd Armored Division. Their older son, who did not serve, is supportive and proud of the family’s military service.
Jerry also holds a master’s degree in political science from the Univ. of Connecticut and did post-graduate work at the Univ. of South Carolina, as part of the Army Advanced Public Affairs Course. His military education includes the Adjutant General basic and advanced courses, the Civil Affairs advanced course, the Command and General Staff College, Senior Public Affairs Course and the National Defense Univ.’s National Security Management Course (outstanding graduate). He was the 2000 Jandoli School’s alumnus of the year.
Both while in the Reserve and after retiring from the Army in 1995, Jerry continued to be a community leader. After a dozen years as a newspaper copy editor and assistant copy desk chief, Jerry with Eileen, who had been an elementary school teacher, took over a faltering professional association (Association of Bridal Consultants), developing it into the wedding industry leader – and, in fact, creating the wedding industry. By the time they retired 25 years later, it had grown to 5,000 members in 32 countries. They both have been active in their community and parish, serving on various volunteer committees and the planning commission, and as a Parish Council member, lector and Eucharistic Minister.
In 2021, their family took in an Afghan refugee, hosting him for 15 months while he established his life in America – asylum, college, employment, car, driver’s license, etc. He had formed an international foundation to help the poor in Kabul; they worked to form a U.S. non-profit corporation. His family finally arrived in October, 2024. Jerry and Eileen both have worked helping several other refugee families.
As a military historian, Jerry has presented programs throughout Connecticut on Vietnam and on the history of the Purple Heart.
In 1978, Jerry and fellow Reservists volunteered when a blizzard shut Connecticut, helping transport medical professionals, carrying fire fighters police officers, etc. He was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal for his efforts. Alongside his impressive list of military awards and accolades, Jerry considers this the most important and meaningful recognition of his service.
He is honored to carry on his family’s tradition of service, both in and out of uniform.
P.S. He still wears the same uniform he first put on in 1967 — and it has been altered once … to take the waist in.