2024 SCHOLARSHIP
$2500 Award Recipients
Christopher Connors
Christopher Hoffman
$500 Honorable Mention Award Recipients
Kathleen DeGregory
Emma Gillanders
Christopher Connors and Christopher Hoffman were each awarded a $2500 Lt. John J. Griffin, Jr./USS Emmons Memorial Scholarship to use toward their educational expenses for the 2024-25 academic year.
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Chris Connors is the great-grandson of shipmate Donald Ayer and is in his freshman year at the College of Charleston (SC). He is studying Business/Commercial Real Estate with a career goal of working in the finance/commercial real estate field. Chris lives in York, Maine.
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Chris Hoffman is the grandson of shipmate Ed Hoffman. Chris lives in Philadelphia where he attends the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University with plans to enter the medical practice in the field of Anesthesiology.
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$500 Honorable Mention Awards went to Kathleen DeGregory and Emma Gillanders.
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Kathleen is the great-granddaughter of shipmate Thaddeus Tenerowicz. She lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, and attends the University of Maryland where she's studying Criminology & Criminal Justice with a minor in Human Development. An aspiring lawyer, Katie is especially interested in the field of Juvenile Corrections Research.
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​ Emma is the great-granddaughter of shipmate Walter Blair and attends the University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida. She is majoring in Marketing with a minor in Sociology and has her sights on a career in retail and digital marketing. Emma lives in Parkland, Florida.
READ THE 2024 ESSAYS:
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The 2024 Essay Prompt:
As Rear Admiral E. Baxter Billingsley stated in his book, “The Emmons Saga,” the men of the USS Emmons “represented the best of America’s young manhood.” With the passing of Grover T. McMichael, the last known surviving member of the USS Emmons crew, one has to ask what characteristics enabled these young men - many as young as 18 years old or in the case of Joseph E. Woodnick, Jr., then only 15 years old - to step up as untested raw recruits and defeat a professionally trained and battle-hardened enemy in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters of WWII.
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Define those characteristics and what made these young men so unique that they would forever be defined in the words of columnist Tom Brokaw as “America’s Greatest Generation.”
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Despite the inspiration these role models of that generation provided, it is worthy of note that military recruitment quotas in all four branches of the military are at an all-time low. Why is it important, especially in this day and age, that the legacy of the sacrifice and dedication of these brave, heroic men not be lost with the passage of time?
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Finally, it is said that “A sailor doesn’t die his final death until his name is spoken for the last time.” Likewise General Douglas MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die - they just fade away.” What can you do personally as a member of the Emmons family to ensure that the Emmons legacy and the exploits of the Emmons crew are never spoken for the last time and allowed to fade away?
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