Harleton High School will have its annual Veteran's Day program at 10 a.m. on Nov. 11.

The speaker will be Sgt. Maj. Patrick Johnson, a graduate of Harleton High School who has served in the U.S. Air Force from October 1983 through November 1992 as security specialist in England and Belgium. Before that, he worked at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Jefferson as a 911 dispatcher and was Longview youth coordinator. He also worked at Thiokol Army Ammunition Plant as security guard in Karnack.

Johnson worked at the S.T.A.R. Day Boot Camp in Tyler for Smith County Juvenile Services as a drill instructor from January 1995 until February 1998. He left Tyler to work for Harrison County Juvenile Services as coordinator/drill instructor in charge of the S.T.A.R. Day Boot Camp from February 1998 to April 2001.

He also has worked at Longview High School as the On Campus Suspension director. After leaving there he went to work at the Kilgore Crises Center as Community Resource Director. He was responsible for all public relations and he was a facilitator of the Batterer's Intervention Prevention Program for men who had abused their wives and children.

Johnson is currently employed at the Longview Wellness Center, where he is a behavior management specialist and teaches anger management. He does motivational speaking in schools, colleges, churches, youth camps and anywhere people will listen to him. He and his family have a 501c (3) non-profit organization called J-S.T.A.R. Ministries Inc. that is specifically youth focused with a mission statement of "Helping today's youth become tomorrow's leaders."

Every year J-S.T.A.R. Ministries puts on a Youth Explosion in Marshall, Texas where they give away free school supplies, clothes and lots of door prizes.

Johnson has a scholarship named in his honor due to his work with the youth through East Mt. Olive Baptist District Association (an association of 25 churches.) He was ordained as bishop on Aug. 19, 2005, by Bishop Floyd E. Lewis Sr., presiding bishop of the International Church Fellowship of Houston. He was bishop of the youth in the International Church Fellowship, a fellowship of over 100 churches. He and his wife, Shanna, had a voluntary exercise program that they conducted once a week with the Youth at the East Texas Open Door (ETOD) in Marshall.

Sgt. Major Johnson is a chaplain for the Marshall Police Department. He and Shanna have six children — Ashley, Alicia, Aisha, Ashanti, Aligah and Patrick Jr.

He made a vow to the Lord that he will work with youth for the rest of his life.

The staff, faculty and students look forward to hearing him speak this year.