Veteran Alumni

List of 8 members.

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  Trevor Benitone 

  Adams Keegan, Inc.

  Executive VP/Chief Revenue Officer

  United States Air Force Academy - BS
  University of Alabama - MA

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  MILITARY SERVICE
  Trevor Benitone ’91 served 24 years in the U.S. Air Force where he held roles as an MC-130H instructor pilot, special operations staff officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Senate liaison officer, and commander in the United States Air Force and United States Special Operations Command.

   

  Benitone was a combat pilot earning over 2,500 flying hours and numerous awards and distinctions. His last assignment was commandant of the United States Special Operations School in Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Florida. In this capacity he oversaw classroom training for thousands of next-generation special operations warriors. He was selected for the rank of full colonel, though he retired from active duty in 2015 prior to pin-on.

   

  NOTE: Benitone serves on nomination panels for congressmen Cohen and Kustoff. Students should contact him if they plan on applying for a service academy nomination so he can work with them on that process.
• 

  Cage Carruthers 

  Stephens, Inc.

  Senior Vice President

  University of Mississippi - BBA

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  MILITARY SERVICE

  After graduating from Ole Miss in 1980, Cage Carruthers ’76 attended Navy officer-candidate and logistics schools. He was selected to serve aboard the newest (and last to be built) nuclear-powered cruisier, USS Arkansas CGN-41. On its maiden voyage, the Mediterranean Sea deployment in USS Nimitz Carrier Battle Group, he had to cross Libya’s “Line of Death.” Six weeks after returning to the states, the USS Arkansas changed home ports to Naval Air Station Alameda in California. Her next deployment was in USS Enterprise Carrier Battle Group.

   

  Carruthers left active duty and entered the NAVAIR for two years with Naval Air Facility Misawain Japan, going there annually with patrol squadron VP-67’s P-3 Orions, which were used to hunt Soviet submarines (like The Hunt for Red October) out of Vladivostok.

   

   
• 

  Met Crump 

  The Crump Firm, Inc.

  Founder, Chairman/CEO

  Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, France
  Harvard University - MA
  Sewanee: The University of the South - BA

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  MILITARY SERVICE
  Met Crump ’60 served six years in the United States Army Reserves from February 1967 through February 1973 and was honorably discharged with the rank of Specialist Four. Upon completing his basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was honored as the trainee of his battalion and received the American Spirit Honor Medal. After basic training, Crump spent four months of training in aerial photography map compiling at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, home of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

   

  Returning to Memphis in 1968, he joined the 330th U.S. Army Reserves Field Hospital where he served five years of periodic reserve duty in hospital administration at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Stewart, South Carolina.
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  McClain Gordon 

  Global Capital Group LLC

  Branch Manager

  University of Pennsylvania - MBA
  Vanderbilt University - BA

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  MILITARY SERVICE

  McClain Gordon ’67 began his freshman year at Vanderbilt College and enlisted with the Tennessee Air National Guard. Basic training at Lackland Air Force Base was scheduled to begin at the end of his freshman year, but history had other plans. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed, and Gordon was called into active duty. Reporting immediately to the Memphis airport in April 1968, he was assigned to the Supply Department, handing out rifles, ammunition, boots, and uniforms as cargo plane after cargo plane landed with armored personnel carriers and troops – all assigned to patrol Memphis.

   

  On the fourth day of basic training at Lackland, he was in the cafeteria line at 0600 when he learned Robert Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles after winning the California primary. Because of riots and prolific arson, the military assigned Gordon to the riot duty group for training. They protected the firemen, their pumper trucks, and the fire plugs used to put out building fires. Afterward, he was on active duty one weekend per month and two weeks every summer until 1974, when his six years were completed. For those who think our country is divided, he says what we have today is a whimper compared to 1968.
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  Pat Hopper 

  FedEx Services

  Vice President

  Air Force Institute of Technology - MS
  United States Air Force Academy - BS

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  MILITARY SERVICE

  Pat Hopper ’89 is a FedEx information technology vice president. Prior to joining FedEx, he was a captain in the U.S. Air Force responsible for the acquisition of GPS satellites and classified space systems. He began his career as an operational contracting officer at a B-1 bomber base in Rapid City, South Dakota, and spent his last four years of service in the Air Force at the Space and Missile Systems Headquarters in Los Angeles.
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  Andy McArtor 

  FedEx Corporation

  Pilot

  United States Air Force Academy - BS

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  MILITARY SERVICE

  Andy McArtor ’86 graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy where he enjoyed playing football and being part of the 1989 and ’90 Collegiate National Championship rugby teams. Upon graduation he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and attended undergraduate pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, where he was a distinguished graduate and recipient of the Order of Daedalians Award. He then began pilot instructor training at Randolph AFB, Texas, where he was a distinguished graduate. Returning to Columbus, he became an instructor pilot and taught fighter fundamentals in the supersonic T-38 Talon.
  
  In the Tennessee Air National Guard in Memphis from 1996-02, McArtor flew the C-141 Starlifter all around the globe supporting various conflicts, including 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) following the September 11 attacks. He separated from the Air National Guard in 2002 as a major, to focus on family and his next career. He had joined FedEx as a pilot in 1997.
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  Mel Payne 

  Memphis Surgery Associates PC

  Surgeon

  University of Tennessee, Memphis - MD
  Rhodes College - BS

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  MILITARY SERVICE

  Mel Payne ’80 received the U.S. Navy Health Professions Scholarship for medical school in 1984 and was commissioned an ensign, U.S. Naval Reserve, in 1984. He began U.S. Navy Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, Rhode Island, during the summer of 1985, and graduated from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in 1988. He was promoted to lieutenant, USNR, the same year and began his surgery internship at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. He became a general medical officer with 3rd Marine Force Service Support Group, Okinawa, Japan, 1989-90. Conducting his general surgery residency at Naval Medical Center, he was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1994, became a ship surgeon on USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), and then served as a general surgeon at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital from 1995-97. When he resigned from the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1997, he began general surgery practice in Memphis.
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  John Reinhardt 

  Tennessee Air National Guard

  164th Logistics Readiness Squadron Commander

  Central Michigan University - MS
  University of Tennessee - BA

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  MILITARY SERVICE
  A career logistics officer, John Reinhardt ’07 is a 2011 graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also earned a Master of Science in administration at Central Michigan University.

  
  Reinhardt deployed to Erbil Air Base, Iraq, serving as the aerial port team commander in direct support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He also deployed to the CENTCOM operation center in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, as a joint operation planning and execution system manager. As commander of the 164th Logistics Readiness Squadron, 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis, he leads a diverse team of logisticians who support rapid global mobility for federal and state missions. The team manages all logistics, including all wing deployment operations, ground and air transportation, vehicle fleet maintenance, fuels, aircraft parts, and individual protective equipment for 1,000 airmen.