Electrician’s Mate 1st Class William Gore

Electrician’s Mate 1st Class William Gore gets the job done on the ship – supervisors agree he’s one of the hardest working and effective guys they have. But it’s what Gore does off the clock that has earned him the title of Military Times’ 2017 Coast Guardsman of the Year. Over the past three years, Gore and his wife, Judith, have donated thousands of dollars of their own money to their nonprofit organization, Danilo’s Cares. Named for Judith’s father, Danilo Martinez, Danilo’s Cares has provided 3,000 impoverished Honduran children with free dental care Gore recalls a life-changing moment in 2011 when he and wife took a trip to her native Honduras. Gore recalled his shock at the level of poverty in some parts of the country. “Even though Judith had told me what to expect, it paled in comparison to the reality of the conditions. Mud huts, no running water, dirt floors, and poor hygiene,” he later wrote. “So after our visit, Judith shared with me her desire to take initiative and try to do something to help these kids that were being held so tightly in the grasp of poverty." After Judith’s father passed in 2014, they set out to form a legal nonprofit entity to honor him and to continue Danilo Martinez’s lifelong passion for giving back to his community. Gore’s commitment to both serving his country in the Coast Guard and affecting positive change is at the core of what it means to be a Military Times Service Member of the Year.

Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Robert

Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Robert’s four combat deployments as an infantryman include a historic tour to Sangin, Afghanistan, with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in 2010 and 2011 when his battalion took more casualties than any other U.S. unit in the Afghanistan war.

“We had to constantly bring it in and have group discussions and make sure that everybody was still sane, mentally and physically, just from the things that were going on around us: People getting hurt, friends,” Robert said. “It was just an all-around bad place.”

Since July 2013, Robert has been based out of Marine Barrack Washington, D.C. His job with the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon has involved selecting the Marines for the team and then spending 30 days in Yuma, Arizona, perfecting the drill sequence performed around the country.

Almost all of the members of the Silent Drill Platoon are first-term Marines, but Robert manages to inspire them to look and perform as if they had spent years in the Corps.

“I do not ever yell,” Robert said. “Being a leader and being a Marine, that’s a hard trait to have. As you know, especially in the infantry, we’re very loud; we’re very outspoken. All of the Marines around me — to include higher and lower — they all know when I’m upset.”

He’s spent more than 10 years doing volunteer work with the Special Olympics that has included coaching a bowling team, setting up for events and partnering with Special Olympics athletes as they run through the competition. These days at Marine Barracks Washington, Robert often runs into Commandant Gen. Robert Neller at the gym and says he is inspired by Neller’s efforts to lead by example by staying in shape.

Information Systems Technician 1st Class (IW/EXW) Justin Sullivan

Ten-year Navy veteran Information Systems Technician 1st Class (IW/EXW) Justin Sullivan served at the tip of the spear during his four-year tour assisting the Navy’s SEAL teams in Afghanistan. During two combat tours in 2012 and 2013 at remote operating bases in Afghanistan, Sullivan served as a radio operator and supported medical evacuations. His expertise was credited with saving the lives of two local Afghan soldiers. Earlier in his career, while stationed in Naples, Italy, Sullivan was awarded his first Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal for volunteering over 1,400 hours coaching the Naples Tiger Sharks Swim Team. The amount of time he spends volunteering has only increased since then, and while stationed at Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Little Creek, Virginia, he was awarded another volunteer medal.  At his current command, he’s spent nearly 380 hours volunteering as a teacher, mentor and safety observer with the Naval Sea Cadets Corps, a Navy-related organization that teaches teenagers, ages 13 to 17, about the Navy, leadership and community service. For his continued efforts in his community, Sullivan has garnered two President's Volunteer Service Awards — one bronze and one silver — and has been given the Navy League’s Outstanding Service Member Award. Sullivan is currently eligible for promotion to chief petty officer, and his records will be reviewed in July to see if he'll step into the chiefs mess. He’s also weighing the idea of becoming a limited duty officer and heading to the wardroom.

Maj. Christopher Mercado

After several of Maj. Christopher Mercado’s friends and comrades committed suicide, the infantry officer decided to stop feeling powerless. He drew on these experiences to create an app that connects service members and veterans with someone to talk to in times of need.
 
He co-founded the Objective Zero Foundation, which provides suicide-prevention resources to troops, vets and families. Mercado and the foundation created the Objective Zero app, where users can chat with someone via message, video or phone call at the push of a button.
 
Mercado dedicates his free time to fine-tuning the app, but he also makes his wife and two children a priority. He has volunteered as a youth wrestling coach, mentoring his son and other young wrestlers.

Through a military fellowship with the College of William and Mary’s Project on International Peace and Security, Mercado assists an undergraduate student with research work on national security.
 
Mercado, with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, has deployed five times, including to Iraq and Afghanistan. His awards and decorations include three Bronze Star Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, 10 Army Achievement Medals, and the NATO Medal.    

Tech. Sgt. Megan Harper

Tech. Sgt. Megan Harper has been chosen as our 2017 Airman of the Year due to her nearly 15 years of service excellence – from the battlefields of Iraq, to her devotion to producing outstanding new airmen as a Military Training Instructor, to serving her community and saving lives at home. Harper, of Mesquite, Texas, came from an Army family and joined the Air Force after the Sept. 11 attacks. She became a security forces airman, and deployed five times beginning in fall 2003 to Kirkuk, Iraq; Balad, Iraq; Kuwait twice; and Manas, Kyrgyzstan.
 
In May 2004, Harper became the ninth woman in Air Force history to finish the elite security forces Phoenix Raven program, which specially trains airmen to secure aircraft while in flight and provide ground security when those aircraft land in dangerous areas.
 
Harper has trained 1,125 new airmen and graduated 22 flights since she became an MTI in 2014, as well as overseeing 14 other instructors as an interim instruction supervisor – the only one in her unit who is not a master sergeant. Her flight commander, Maj. Christopher Sweeney, said her passion and enthusiasm has made her respected by all as she trains and inspires her basic trainees. “She’ll get down and do pushups with you,” Sweeney said.
 
Harper even saved the lives of two people in two separate occasions in a span of less than three hours in May 2016. She first performed the Heimlich maneuver on a trainee who was choking in a dining facility during dinner. Then, shortly after she left Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Harper saw a pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle. She performed first aid on the victim, redirected traffic, and talked to her constantly to keep her from falling into shock. For her actions, Harper received the Air Force Achievement Medal – but Sweeney said that due to Harper’s humility, other airmen had to drag the details of the incidents out of her.
 
Harper is heavily involved in volunteer activities that support veterans and at-risk, underprivileged youth in her area, such as the Bataan Death March memorial race, drives to raise hygiene supplies for female veterans and uniforms for junior ROTC. She also works with Team Rubicon, a veterans organization that responds to natural disasters in the area such as tornadoes and flooding. And she heads up a mentorship program for young LGBT troops coming in to the military.