JONESBORO — Clayton County Senior Services recently honored U.S. Army Retired Staff Sgt. Bonita E. Crawford as the Veteran of the Month.
Crawford was also honored at a recent Clayton County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Crawford was born June 18, 1950 in Pittsburgh, Penn.
She is the daughter of Oliver A. Thomasson, a steelworker, and Gloria Delores Estella Jackson-Thomasson, who sold Avon to the local community.
Crawford enlisted in the United States Army on Dec. 2, 1976 and served on active duty through Jan. 1, 1997 as a chaplain assistant.
She entered the military at a time when it was not popular for women to enlist in the Women’s Army Corps.
Her class was the last WAC class to graduate from Fort McClellan, Ala.
She attended Advanced Individual Training at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, N.Y., and then began her first duty assignment at Fort McPherson in Atlanta.
She also served at Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea; Fort Gillem in Forest Park; Wuerzburg, Germany; Desert Storm; at the United States Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Monmouth, N.J.; and Fort Jackson, S.C.
After retiring from the military, Crawford obtained a bachelor of arts in religious studies from Saint Leo University.
She then went on to become the division secretary to the dean for the Office of Humanities and Fine Arts at Atlanta Metropolitan State College for 13 years, giving back to the community and mentoring students. She retired from the college in 2013.
Crawford currently serves as president for the City of Morrow Neighborhood Watch program and as president of the Brookwood Estates Homeowners Association.
She is also the scribe for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the City of Morrow.
She also serves as recording secretary for the Atlanta Metro Chapter of the National Association of Black Military Women and is a member of the VFW 5080.
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