Montgomery Rotary Club welcomes international military officers to the city
The Montgomery Rotary Club is welcoming military officers and their spouses from all around the world to the city.
Monday, the club held its 34th annual Rotary International Night, which is a reception for those officers who will be training at Maxwell Air Force Base for the next year before returning home to their native country.
Dozens of countries were represented.
Rotary International has a mission to promote peace and goodwill throughout the world. Many of the officers who train at Maxwell’s Air War College will go on to become ambassadors or high-ranking military officials in their home countries.
The hope is to create stronger bonds with nations allied with the U.S.
“We’re proud of our defense community here,” Scott Rizer, the chairman of Rotary International Night, told Action 8 News. ” Montgomery and the River Region were recently selected as a great defense community by the National Association of Defense Communities and it’s because of events just like this, this town and this community are very well-known throughout the Air Force for being very welcoming and very supportive of our military here.”
“The Rotary Club’s motto is ‘Service Above Self,’ and that’s what each and every one of these warriors have provided all of us — service to make sure that not only us, but our children, have freedom,” Montgomery Rotary Club President Wesley Littlefield said.
“The importance of this type of event is to allow our students, our international students, to get out in the community here in the United States. They come not just for the military education, but also to understand the United States, so we can become better allies and partners and friends moving forward,” Col. Kevin Lee, the commander of Air War College, said.
The international officers are invited to receive this year-long training by the U.S. State Department.
