Veterans Day Panel: Love of Country & Family in the Service
Join us for this special 2026 Veterans Day event!
Panelists include:
-
Nicholas Walters
-
Corporal E-4, Veteran of the United States Marine Corps, 2001-2005
-
Nicholas Walters is currently the Band and Choir Director at Harmony Magnet Academy and Strathmore High School. He is also the Co-director of the Harmony Magnet Academy Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas earned his Master of Music in Voice Pedagogy from The Boston Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts in Voice from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 2001-2005 as a musician at Marine Corps Base Hawai’i at Kaneohe Bay, HI. Nicholas was raised in Porterville and is an alumni of Porterville High School.
-
Brent Coburn
-
Corporal E-4, Veteran of the United States Marine Corps, 2018-2021
-
Brent was born and raised in Porterville, California. While on active duty, he was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he served as a Radio Operator. After leaving the service, he began his law enforcement career with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office as a Sheriff’s Correctional Deputy. He is currently a student at Porterville College and expects to graduate this fall.
-
Rene Martin
-
Ch. Captain, Active Duty in the United States Air Force, 29 years of service.
-
Rene Martin is active duty in the Air Force. Specifically, the California Air National Guard, an Air Reserve Component. Before joining the Air National Guard, he served 9 years as an active-duty Marine. As a US Marine, he served in Kuwait and Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004. From 2009 through 2017, he served on multiple stateside deployments as an Intelligence Analyst for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2021, as a Religious Affairs Airman, he was deployed to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office to support guard troops sent to help collect the dead backing up in the LA Hospitals during COVID. He has been a Chaplain since 2021 and currently serves the 129 Rescue Wing in Moffett, California, as a Drill Status Guardsman. His day job is as Director of STARBASE Porterville, a Youth STEM Engagement program, for the California Military Department.
