Lt. Col. Matt Fleharty of the United States Air Force will be the featured speaker at next Monday’s Veterans Day assembly at Kingfisher High School.

The assembly will be held in the APB at 11 a.m.

Hosted by KHS Student Council, it will include performances by the KHS band, choir and will also feature the Oklahoma Boys State and Girls State delegates from KHS.

All local veterans and their families are invited to attend. A meal for veterans and their families will follow. ( Ed. note: The Student Council sent a letter inviting local veterans. That letter can be found on Page 1B of this edition.)

Fleharty is the commander for the Defense Contract Management Agency, Aircraft Integrated Maintenance Operations, at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.

He is responsible for leading a 63-person organization and management of 710 contracts worth $24.9B to ensure safe and effective aircraft operations for platforms like the B-52, T-6 and AWACS to deliver essential war-fighting capability to the Department of Defense and our international partners. Fleharty previously was stationed at the Pentagon as the program element monitor for the Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system where he led Air Staff level acquisition planning, programming, budgeting and execution for the $141 billion program to modernize the land-based leg of the nuclear triad through 2075.

Fleharty was born and raised in Oklahoma City.

He earned his commission into the Air Force in May 2009 as a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.

He has since earned master’s degrees from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Naval Postgraduate School.

Off-duty, he is a proud volunteer for the Oklahoma American Legion Boys State program, where he serves as chief of staff, helping educate and inspire hundreds of high school students each year about government, leadership and citizenship.

Also on Monday, the Keith Lowry-Henry Ellyson American Legion Post 5 will be hosting its annual Veterans Day breakfast at the Kingfisher Elks Lodge.

Door will open at 6 a.m. and the meal is at 7 a.m. with a program to follow.

For more information, see the ad on Page 1B of this edition.