“Veterans Day is a good day to consider those who have gone before us from these same dorms, halls, paths, and fields to the far corners of the world, fighting for a cause in which they believed,” said U.S. Navy veteran Jonas P. Akins ’97 when he returned to Milton this month to serve as the 2025 Veterans’ Day speaker.
Now a history teacher and football and golf coach at Choate Rosemary Hall, Akins previously served as a naval intelligence officer, with deployments abroad on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier and a year in Baghdad. Speaking to students, faculty, and his mother, Caroline (Bonnet) Akins ‘59, whom he warmly acknowledged during his remarks, Akins invited the community to think about the many forms that meaningful service can take. “I hope that by sharing a few of my experiences, I might convince you to at least consider a term of service to others, to pursue something more than your own happiness. Something bigger than yourself,” he said.
Akins emphasized the enduring importance of community, connection, and teamwork—values shaped during his own years at Milton and strengthened by his military service. “When it all goes sideways, and believe me, it will, you won’t be able to carry it off by yourself,” he said. “You’ll need the people around you, the people with whom you’ve built those close connections.” He challenged students to look for everyday opportunities to strengthen their communities and support each other. “Your efforts can improve the experiences of those around you, and theirs improve yours.”
Drawing on Milton’s long history of alumni military service, Akins highlighted the 24 graduates who lost their lives during World War I—many of whose stories he came to know through World War Memoirs of Milton Academy, written by former faculty member Markham W. Stackpole. Akins located a copy of the volume on eBay in 2008 during his time in Baghdad. He shared stories of Milton graduates such as Edward Mandell Stone, the first American citizen killed in action during the conflict, and Priscilla Alden Crocker, a U.S. Army student nurse who died in 1919 while caring for soldiers during the influenza epidemic.
