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Damien Memorial School students had a chance to meet one of the school's highest-achieving grads on Tuesday.
Major General Kelly McKeague, a 1977 graduate of Damien Memorial, was greeted by the ROTC color guard as he made his first visit to his alma mater since his graduation.
He was appointed in August 2012 to lead the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). It is the first posting in his home state in his military career which began in 1981.
McKeague oversees a unique command that researches, recovers and identifies the remains of American service men and women who died in conflicts around the globe. The command has four detachments in Honolulu, Hanoi, Bangkok and Vientiane. Honolulu's detachment has the world's largest forensic skeletal laboratory, the Central Identification Laboratory, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Clearly moved by the experience of returning to a campus he left more than three decades ago, he talked to the students about the five "Cs" that make leaders: character, confidence, communication, challenge and compassion. He said those principles were drummed into him at Damien and molded him into the man he became.
McKeague took part in the school's quarterly honors assembly, congratulating award winners with Damien president Bernard Ho and principal Brother Pe1ter Zawot.
ROTC cadet Joshua Lee, a senior, greeted Maj. Gen. McKeague as he arrived in the parking lot. Lee said it was a thrill to meet a Damien grad who had achieved such stature in the military.