ARLINGTON, Va., - A pioneering National Guard Bureau attorney who was instrumental in founding the life-changing National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program retired here recently.
Joseph Monachino served the bureau for more than 35 years, including 24 as an Air Force civilian. He wrote thousands of legal opinions for dozens of offices in support of National Guard leadership on behalf of NGB's chief counsel.
"It's just absolutely incredible, Joe's accomplishments," said Army Lt. Col. Chris Rofrano, NGB's chief counsel. "Joe is a very, very modest person, and he doesn't go around plugging his accomplishments and the great things he's done."
For years, he was the bureau's only contract attorney. He developed the Guard's first procurement regulation, and he developed and taught the Guard's fiscal law course that educated personnel in procurement procedures.
"I have never met a finer person in my life," Rofrano said. "I have never met a boss, who was more caring about his employees. … Joe is my mentor. Joe is calm and steady. Joe always did the right thing. Joe is never afraid to make the hard decisions."
"Are you sure you've got the right guy?" Monachino joked after tributes during his retirement ceremony here at the Army National Guard Readiness Center. "All I did was just do my job. … I always looked forward to coming to the office. I felt that coming to the office I was at least doing something that may have been useful. I was real proud to be a member of the Guard."
His contributions to Youth ChalleNGe, which gives at-risk youth a second chance at a better life and is now nearing its 100,000th graduate, are only one of a myriad of accomplishments.
"We wouldn't have ChalleNGe today but for Joe," Rofrano said.
He started out working as a farm laborer for his immigrant farming parents. When he decided to pursue formal schooling, his parents sacrificed to see him all the way through law school. His first formal schooling was inauspicious: The 8-year-old returned home in tears, because he didn't speak English and couldn't understand.
"My father said to me, 'You have to do this because you want to do it - not because I want you to do it,'" Monachino told Rofrano. "'If you stumble, or if you falter, as long as you are doing your best, I will be there for you.' "
Drafted into the Army after law school, Monachino entered as a specialist, serving in Europe. Returning to the United States, he practiced law in upstate New York before entering the Air Force as a judge advocate and serving in Libya and upstate New York, where he met his future wife, Kay.
He transferred to the Air National Guard in 1972. He served in uniform at NGB from 1974 to 1985 before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He served Congress for two years, then returned to NGB as a civilian in 1987 and stayed.
Monachino talked about how all his life he has seen examples of the spirit of 1776 living on to the present day, in the sacrifices of those who did not return from war and those who did.
"But the spirit of '76 is not only the military but civilians as well," Monachino said. "It's very nice to know as I leave that no matter what happens, whether it's a natural disaster or a manmade disaster, the Guard is going to be there, and I know the Guard is going to do a hell of a job."