Veterans Day celebrated at El Camino
Maj. Brenda Threatt and former El Camino College Dean of I-Tech and U.S. Army veteran Sgt. Ronald Way renders a salute during The Pledge of Allegiance at a Veterans Day event on Thursday, Nov. 10 at El Camino’s East Dining Room. (Greg Fontanilla | The Union)
El Camino hosted a Veterans Day event in the East Dining Room celebrating past and present members of the military on Thursday, Nov. 10.
The event featured a panel with former members of the Marine Corps answering questions regarding their experience during their time on active duty.
The event took place from 12 to 1:30 pm. and was open to the public with family, friends and staff all present. There were also goodie bags for attendants and food was also free.
19-year-old engineering major Cody Taylor was not planning to attend the event at first but attended halfway through to be there for his friend.
“To be honest, my friend is here; he is in the Army. He asked me to finish my work in the lab… he said I could just come if I wanted when I was done, so I did, and the food was good,” Taylor said.
Panelists spoke candidly about joining the military, their time overseas and adjusting to becoming a civilian again.
Leslie Mercado, who served on the USS Ronald Regan and is currently a Criminal Justice major at El Camino, shared a memory that particularly stood out to her while she had been deployed.
“I went to different countries. South Korea, Portugal, Australia, and we were always followed by Russia and North Korea,” Mercado said. “I was on watch my friend asked if I wanted to see the North Korean submarine… and when I did, it hit me that it wasn’t a game, it was real life.”
Today also marked a milestone for Marines as it is the 247th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Many veterans were on campus at El Camino to attend the event and participate in the panel.
Armando Castellanos, who served eight years in the Marine Corps and was a heavy machine gunner attached to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, based out of Pasadena, expressed his gratitude for his brotherhood gained from his years of service after being deployed to Georgia and Iraq.
“It was cool being in [ the Marine Corps]. In anything, there are the downs, but there are a lot of uplifting moments that made many great friends that I am still friends with now and will be for the rest of my life,” Castellanos said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I wouldn’t do it again,”
Panelists also took questions from audience members, who were also a part of military families and were veterans themselves.
One of those panelists was also Jovanni Soto, a Marine stationed in North Carolina and who has served five years. Sharing the panel with Soto, was Castellanos to explain to people what it is like to be in the Marine Corps.
“I would gladly do it in the future again. What makes events like this exciting is the questions from the crowd. In the crowd getting specific questions about our experience,”
Soto, a work-study at the Veterans Resource Center, volunteered to be a voice for veterans all over the country. Castellanos felt vulnerable in his first panel, but he plans to continue educating people curious about Military personnel.
“I think [panels] like this are important because people don’t experience being in the military firsthand,” Soto said.
Editors Note: Corrected title of Marine Corps branch on November 11, 2022, at 8:04 p.m.
