Two Clay Countians complete Air Force training
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Two local men recently graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in San Antonio, Texas.
Trainees completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training also earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. The graduates are:
Airman 1st Class Jacob G. King, son of Bethany A. and Bryan G. King of Starke, is a 2016 graduate of Bradford High School. He earned an associate degree in 2016 from Santa Fe Community College.
U.S. Air Force Airman Robert A. Albert earned four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
Albert, son of Angela M. Crews of Fleming Island, is a 2016 graduate of Fleming Island High.

Boynton completes Army basic training
FORT SILL, Okla. – A Clay County resident has completed basic training with the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Okla.
During the 10-week training, students studied the Army mission, history, tradition and core values, physical fitness, and received instruction and practice in basic combat skills, military weapons, chemical warfare and bayonet training, drill and ceremony, marching, rifle marksmanship, armed and unarmed combat, map reading, field tactics, military courtesy, military justice system, basic first aid, foot marches and field training exercises.
Army Private Joshua Boynton graduated on May 12.
Boynton, is the son of Tiffany Googin and brother of Mark Boynton and Charlotte Googin, both of Fleming Island. He is a 2015 graduate of Ridgeview High near Orange Park.

Oakleaf alum serves on Navy’s largest warship
By Tom Gagnier, Navy Office of Community Outreach
NORFOLK, Va. – An Oakleaf High School graduate, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Concha, is serving on one of the world’s largest warships, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. It’s the same ship his grandfather served on before his birth.
Concha is an information systems technician aboard the Norfolk-based ship, which is a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and one of only 10 operational aircraft carriers in the Navy today. He is responsible for executing information transfer using state-of-the-art multi-media technology.
“I learn something new every day while performing my job,” Concha said.
Approximately 3,200 men and women make up the ship’s company, and they do everything from washing dishes and preparing meals to handling weaponry and maintaining the nuclear reactors. Another 2,000 sailors comprise the air wing, the people who fly and maintain the ship’s aircraft.
Eisenhower, like each of the Navy’s aircraft carriers, is designed for a 50-year life of service. When the air wing is embarked, the ship carries more than 70 attack fighter jets, helicopters and other aircraft, all of which take off from and land aboard the carrier at sea. Powerful catapults slingshot the aircraft off the bow of the ship, and those planes land upon their return to the aircraft carrier by snagging a steel cable with an arresting hook that protrudes from the rear of the aircraft. All of this makes Eisenhower a self-contained mobile airport and strike platform, often the first response to a global crisis because of an aircraft carrier’s ability to operate freely in international waters anywhere on the world’s oceans.
“My grandfather served on this ship in 1988,” Concha said. “I love being surrounded by so much history.”
Eisenhower was commissioned in 1977 and named after former president and Army general Dwight D. Eisenhower, who distinguished himself through service and leadership during World War II. As the supreme commander of Allied Forces in Western Europe during World War II, Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
“I’m following in the footsteps of generations before me,” said Concha. “I like to know that I’m a part of something bigger than myself.”