Mokena Board Members Recognize Local Teen Accepted Into Air Force Academy

By Jon DePaolis, the Richard Free Press:

MOKENA, Ill. – The Village of Mokena Board of Trustees recognized a local teenager Monday, May 24, who is set to join the United States Air Force Academy.

During the Village Board meeting, a proclamation was read honoring Marcus Jerome McCarty, a Mokena teenager who received one of the fewer than 1,200 openings to the academy in Colorado Springs. McCarty is set to begin his basic cadet training in June.

“I’m really looking forward to serving America,” he said after being recognized by the board members. “It’s a real honor, and I’m proud that I get to live in this country.”

McCarty was joined at the meeting by his parents, Daniel and Toni.

“Thank you, and we’re very proud of you,” Trustee Debbie Engler told McCarty. “Your family should be very proud of you.”

Mayor Frank Fleischer also congratulated McCarty.

“You’re going into a good career and a good branch of the service,” Fleischer said.

Trustee Jim Richmond also thanked McCarty, as well as all those who serve in the military.

“They are the ones that allow us to do what it is we do each and every day and live in the greatest country in the world ever known to man,” he said.

Later in the meeting, the board members also asked residents to slow down on the local roads as schools begin to let out for the summer and more children are outside playing.

“This is getting a little carried away,” Fleischer said. “Everyone is going a little too fast. I know everybody is getting frisky because they have been tied up for a year, but there can’t be anything worse than to hit a child with your car and then live the rest of your life with that thought.

“So, please, slow down. You don’t have to go 40 mph down side streets. Please, because there are more and more kids on the street now.”

Fleischer also asked residents to continue being vigilant in protecting themselves from catching the coronavirus.

“We are getting very close to hopefully the end of this COVID stuff,” he said. “[But] I can still see where people are getting lax with the masks. I don’t think I’m getting carried away with this, because we still have a certain percentage of people that are coming down with this.

“No matter what anybody thinks, it still affects the older people. Let’s just go on this for maybe a few more weeks or maybe another month, and things are going to be opened up and then we’re going to be done with this. But let’s do our due diligence the rest of the way and finish this thing off.”

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