Col. Edmund Palekas

While at Stagg, Col. Palekas was named Stagg's Outstanding Senior Boy. He then went on to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on an ROTC Scholarship. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and immediately was commissioned into the United States Army as an Infantry Officer. He also arned a Master of Science degree in Operations Research from Georgia Institute of Technology along the way. He has a decorated 25-year Army career. His division was staged in Kuwait and was one of the first units to cross the Iraq border and begin fighting. His battalion task force condcted combat operations in An Najaf, Baghdad and Mosul. Subsequent to Iraq, he served as Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Army and was promoted to Colonel. Post retrement, he is a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, a management and information technology firm.