Caroline Kenyon, the first female state commander of the Massachusetts AmVets, will be the keynote speaker at The Brookfield Institute’s Military Appreciation Breakfast.
Caroline Kenyon, center, with former National Commander Rege Riley, left, and 1st Vice Commander Arty Marchetta at the June 2019 ceremony where she was elected State Commander of the Massachusetts AmVets.
The breakfast is from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Ware Senior Center, 1 Robbins Road. The free breakfast is for veterans, active duty military, National Guard members, reservists and their families. There will be pancakes, sausage, eggs and muffins. There also will be a presentation of three Quilts of Valor, given to local veterans or active duty military. The quilts were made by Paul and Patty Boynton, in honor of their son SFC Christopher Boynton, who died in October. 2015.
Other special guests include Sen. Anne Gobi, Rep. Todd Smola and Rep. Donald Berthiaume.
Kenyon was chosen to lead the state’s AmVets organization this summer, after serving as first vice commander for one year. She is a Navy veteran who first enlisted in 1986, then re-enlisted in 1989. She served in Greece and Hawaii as a radioman, including an assignment on the USS McKee. Since her time in the service, she has worked as a preschool aide and a medical assistant.
AmVets has close to 40 posts in Massachusetts with 5,000 members and is open to veterans who have been on active duty for 180 days, honorably or medically discharged; all branches as well as Merchant Marines. Kenyon is busy as commander trying to get to as many posts as possible. She also goes to national meetings, membership drives, installations, memorial services and helps post colors at sporting events, including a recent New England Patriots game.
Her post is unpaid and lasts for one year.
Kenyon said she never encountered any problems as a woman in the Navy. “I got treated fairly. We were all treated like a family at the transmitter site in Greece. In Hawaii, it was more like one big family, almost like brothers and sisters.” And AmVets has been very supportive of women, she says.
“Many years ago at a state convention, a gentleman pointed at the podium and said, ‘I want to see you there,’” Kenyon said. “I called him up after I got elected and said, ‘You got your wish.’ He was in the audience (at the ceremony) and you could see his smile.
Kenyon is concentrating on her duties as state commander and isn’t thinking about higher posts right now, but AmVets just elected its first female national commander, Jan Brown, an Air Force veteran from Ohio.