Dr. Carl Forkner was into his third year as a special education teacher at Monmouth High School in Illinois when he took a sharp detour that led him on a 28.5-year, distinguished military career.

Forkner, one of 15 veterans inducted into the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Society last month, is a grand marshal in the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade on Tuesday, Nov 11.

Dr. Carl Forkner served in the U.S. Navy for 28.5 years. (Courtesy of Carl Forkner)

For the 67-year-old Mesa resident, who was born in a Chicago suburb of Hazel Crest, choosing to go into the military was not happenstance.

He grew up surrounded by those who served – both his father and paternal uncle were in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the European Theater of WWII as well as his mother’s two brothers. During the war, one was

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