A retired Army veteran is now showing young people a path to success
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Chevelle Thomas is a Senior JROTC instructor at Murphy High School. She retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel after 23 years of service. But she’s not the first in her family to serve.
“My Grandfather, Conrad Nichols, served in World War II. My father Palmer Nichols, he served in the Vietnam War,” she said.
And Thomas has taken that proud tradition further going wherever the Army decided she needed to be, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan where she earned the bronze star. But she is proud of one assignment in particular—promoting the Army and all it has to offer–as a public affairs specialist.
“At that point, it was ‘Army of One’ and I oversaw the marketing of that for African American and minority outreach–so I worked with a lot of minority outreach programs,” she said.
And she was able to meet a lot of famous people along the way, including the commanders-in-chief.
“President Bush, Senior, Junior–President Clinton, President Obama–President Trump.”
Now–and for the past five years, she is showing high school students ways to find success in their lives by teaching in Mobile County Public Schools robust Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps–or JROTC program. And that stands to reason. It’s the program that started her career.
“I went to middle school one day and I saw a drill team–and I said ‘ooh, I want to be a drill sergeant. And then the next thing you know I went to high school, where I ran into my senior army instructor, LTC retired Walter Crimmins–and I told him I want to be a drill sergeant and he looked at me and said ‘I think you can do something bigger,'” said Thomas.
And it also stands to reason that when an important opening came up for the JROTC program, her now immediate boss, Lt. Colonel retired Frank Barrow offered her a job.
Barrow said, “We got her back home and she came to my office and you saw the passion that she has about students and I think in her own mind how the personal impact she’d have on JROTC and Walt Crimmins, who’s a personal friend of mine, and that’s when I knew there’s a change in her demeanor and this is where I need to be.”
And she is making an impact with students and her co-workers.
“She’s an amazing person to work with as well as to work for. She’s always pushing her kids to do their best,” said Sergeant Major Alonzo Melton.
Sergeant First Class Virgil Swain added, “The kids seem to enjoy everything that we do–and they look up to her–and we try to keep things moving and try to keep this I like to say the best program in Mobile County.”
JROTC is a citizenship program–not all students will take a path to the military. But they will learn important lessons from those like Thomas.
“This is what right and wrong looks like–this is what you do when no one is looking,” said Thomas. “We want you to have integrity, ok, so you can be a productive citizen, which is a part of society, which makes this world go round.”
And it’s why LTC Chevelle Thomas is our Serving Those Who Serve hero.
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