This community service award was named in honor of our friend and schoolmate Wardell Turner.

Wardell was an active member of the US Army.

 

He served as the top enlisted for Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan in Kabul, which is primarily responsible for training Afghan National Security Forces.

 

He attended Towson University on a football scholarship, graduating in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in management.

He later earned a master's degree in criminal justice from Central Missouri State University in 2011.

 

Turner had served in several military police units since 1993, most recently in the 720th Military Police Battalion. He was promoted to sergeant major in July 2013.

 

On November 24, 2014, Wardell gave the ultimate sacrifice, as he was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered in a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack.

 

With permission from his widow Katherine and her family, we named the service award in his honor.

 

This year’s recipient of the award for 2019 was Mr. Melvin Harris, a highly decorated retired educator of Music in Salisbury, MD.

 

His acceptance speech is inspiring.