Fort McCoy Garrison Commander Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez and other Fort McCoy personnel engaged with the school board of the Tomah (Wis.) School District on April 20 in the Robert Kupper Learning Center in Tomah.
Baez discussed installation news as well as other information in the "service to the Tomah community" segment of the board meeting. And as an honor to April being the Month of the Military Child, Baez led the Pledge of Allegiance to start the school board meeting.
The participation also was part of regular Army community engagement efforts by Fort McCoy.
Members of the board include Michael Gnewikow, Spencer Stephens, Ricky Murray, Susan Bloom, Teresa Devine, Cathryn Rice, and Heidi Hammes.
During the meeting, Baez was given time to discuss education items regarding Fort McCoy plus more about the Month of the Military Child.
In a similar past meeting to the same school board, Baez praised the school district’s support to military families.
“You are a super important part of educating and supporting our military children,” Baez said. “And like everybody might be aware of, our military children sometimes go through so many moves and so many things. And coming to a district, coming to a community, and having all that support behind them is very, very important. The Tomah community does that very, very well.”
According to the Department of War, the Month of the Military Child (April) isan annual, department-sponsored observance honoring the sacrifices, resilience, and unique challenges faced by the 1.6-plus million children of military members. It recognizes the strength of children managing frequent school moves, parental deployments, and family separation, often celebrated with “Purple Up!” events.
Established in 1986 by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, this month highlights that children serve, too, by adapting to military lifestyle demands.
Community outreach is an important part of the Army mission. According to the Army, as stated at https://www.army.mil/outreach, “the Army is about more than ensuring our national security at home and abroad, it’s about giving back and getting to know the communities that support us.”
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.”
The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.” Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”