Top brass honors Military Children of the Year

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2012 12:04:24 EDT

As the color guard marched in, 9-year-old Nathan Richards stood as still and ramrod-straight as the Navy officer at his side.
That respect is part of the fiber of each of the five children honored at a gala Thursday in Arlington, Va., as their services’ Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year.
They were praised by military brass from their respective services, by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, by Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Sammy Lee Davis, and by actor and veterans advocate Gary Sinise.
Nathan was honored as the Navy Child of the Year; Chelsea Rutherford, 17, Air Force Child of the Year; Amelia McConnell, 17, Army Child of the Year; Erika Booth, 17, Marine Corps Child of the Year; and Alena Deveau, 17, Coast Guard Child of the Year.
“If I had to be identified as the best of the best of the best among any group in America, I’d actually like to be known as the best among military kids,” Dempsey said, “because of what we ask them to do, and what they do.”

Moving as they do, military kids “have to re-establish their credentials every place they go … they have to build and rebuild their reputation, earn and re-earn it. If you can’t feel good about that, I just don’t know what you can feel good about,” Dempsey said.

The children each received $5,000, as well as gifts from other groups, including a $2,000 scholarship from Veterans United Foundation. They were chosen from about 1,000 nominees by a committee of active-duty members, family readiness support assistants, teachers, military mothers and community members.
After the ceremony, in separate interviews, several of the winners said their favorite aspect of the experience in coming to Washington to receive the award was meeting and talking with the other winners, and hearing about what they’ve done. “I’m honored. It was so humbling,” said Erika Booth. “We’re all so humbled.”
Asked what advice she would give to other military kids, Amelia McConnell said, “Always persevere. Never let anything get you down.”
Dempsey joked with Nathan about his “Nate the Great” name that the third-grader uses for his blog for military kids, and wondered if his own new moniker should be “Marty the Smarty.”
Dempsey said he was impressed by Nathan’s writings and quoted part of his blog: “Even though we are young, we can still have great ideas. We can make a difference.”
“I don’t think I ever had an idea as profound as that,” Dempsey said.
Medal of Honor recipient Davis, who has spoken to more than 2 million school children across the country, told the military kids, “Truly we have good kids in this nation, and what we’ve seen here tonight is proof of it. I’m so proud of each one of you.”
He and the service officials thanked Operation Homefront for the work they do for military families.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Operation Homefront has made a positive impact on the lives of families. “Caring for service personnel and their families effectively is clearly a very, very high priority for all the services,” he said.
Jim Knotts, president and chief executive officer of Operation Homefront, issued a challenge to the military children of the year: “You now are representatives of the tens of thousands of military young people, kids, brats … you are examples to them.”