Junelle Marie Mongno of Jacksonville grew up in Nebraska with her family, which included her two brothers and two sisters. She now has millions of sisters.
As an Air Force veteran, Mongno is a sister to approximately 2 million women veterans in the United States and Puerto Rico (2015 statistics found online at va.gov). As a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, she is a sister to approximately 185,000 DAR members worldwide (statistics found online at dar.org).
Now state regent of the Arkansas Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Mongno is reaching out to her DAR sisters in Arkansas, which number approximately 2,300, to help women veterans in Arkansas, which number approximately 20,000.
“My theme for my two-year term as state regent is ASDAR Shines a Light on Women Veterans: Honoring Women Veterans and Heroes Throughout America’s History,” Mongno said.
“I am visiting with the various VA (Veterans Affairs) health facilities and different organizations that focus on women’s issues to see what they may need. I will provide education about this to our chapters and to the public through our chapters,” she said.
“I am talking to people at the VA system, especially, to find out what their needs are. They serve women veterans, as well as homeless veterans, through their clinics around the state. Once I get a picture of the veterans’ needs, I will chose a project we can support with the money I raise from the sale of pins, scarves, T-shirts and other items,” Mongno said.
“Women veterans’ needs are an evolving issue and receiving more attention now than in the past,” she said. “When I was in the military, if a women got pregnant while she was in the service, she had to get out. The women are now able to have their babies and remain in the military.
“And when they get out of the service, they have different needs as well.”
Mongno was born April 24, 1949, in Lincoln, Nebraska, a daughter of the late Karl and June Linke. Mongno grew up in Bassett, Nebraska, about 25 miles south of Lincoln.
She graduated from Rock County High School in Bassett in 1967 and went to Kearney State College, which is now part of the University of Nebraska System.
“I wanted to go into home-economics education, but about halfway through, I switched to dietetics and had to take more science and biology classes,” she said. “I graduated in June 1971.
“During my last full semester, my counselor called me in and told me an Air Force recruiter was coming to campus looking for dietetics majors that might be interested in the Air Force Institute of Technology program. That program offered dietetics internships in civilian hospitals,” she said.
“I signed on the dotted line. For my internship, I chose Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo, Colorado,” Mongno said.
“I had graduated from college in January but did not have to report for active duty until July 1971,” she said.
“It was during those six months that I got into DAR trouble,” she said, laughing.
“During those six months, I spent time with my grandmother and her sister, who were working on the family’s history. I ended up typing up those family-history stories. If I had known then that I would end up being in DAR, much less, leading the Arkansas Society, I might have asked more questions,” Mongno said. “I was just busy typing and not really thinking about the significance of all that.
“You never know how what you do now might come back into play in your life later on.”
Mongno said she reported to her first Air Force assignment at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“Then I went over to Pueblo and started my internship, which was for nine months. After completing my internship, I reported to Shepard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. That’s where I completed my medical officer’s basic training. That’s where I also got my uniform, learned how to salute, how to march and so on,” she said.
“My first duty station was Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoui, Illinois. I was there for about two years and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after 18 months. I was a medical foods-service officer,” Mongno said.
“I was transferred to Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where I served for two years as a medical foods service officer. While there, I hit my four-year mark in my enlistment and decided to stay in the Air Force. I wanted to make captain at six years, when I would be 28,” she said.
“I was assigned to the Little Rock Air Force Base in August 1975, where I served another two years. My discharge date was Aug. 3, 1977,” Mongno said.
“I was in charge of dining services. I ran the kitchen, worked with overweight airmen and women, gave diet instruction and served on several committees in the hospital,” she said.
“That’s where I met Jim,” Mongno said, referring to her late husband, Jim Mongno.
“We were married April 30, 1977, on my parents’ ranch at Bassett. Jim was already retired from the Air Force when we met,” she said. “We talked about my continuing my career in the Air Force, and I decided it was time for me to get out. So that’s what I did. I didn’t work for 10 years. I stayed home. We remodeled the house and did other stay-at-home things.
“Then in January 1987, I went to work for the state as a nursing-home inspector for the Office of Long-term Care. I did that for 18 years and worked there until 2000. Then I took a job with the state health department, working with different programs in hospitals. I retired from the state in February 2006.”
Mongno’s grandmother, the late Violet Gay Baxter Linke, had already done the genealogical research and joined DAR in 1972. Mongno applied to join DAR in 1983 and was approved three years later in 1986; her patriot is John Gay of Virginia.
“Things have really changed with that process. Now prospective members are often approved in three months, and they think that’s a long time to wait,” she said.
“I first joined the Evergreen Chapter in Ainsworth, Nebraska. That was my grandmother’s chapter. She passed away in 1995,” Mongno said.
“But I didn’t become active in DAR until I retired. When I was working for the state, I met two members from the Major Jacob Gray Chapter in Jacksonville, and I transferred my membership from Nebraska,” she said.
“After a few months, I was elected treasurer of Major Jacob Gray, then regent,” she said. “I was state historian, then state vice regent and now state regent. I have also served as Quapaw District director, state chairwoman of DAR Project Patriot and South Central Division vice chairwoman.
“From 1986 to 2005, I really had no idea what DAR was all about. Becoming state regent was not something I ever aspired to do, but when asked, I said, ‘yes.’”
Mongno was officially elected ASDAR state regent in March 2017; her husband died Aug. 20, 2017.
“After Jim passed away, they called and asked if I still wanted to be the state regent, and I said ‘yes.’ DAR is like family to me. I don’t know what I would do without them,” she said.
Mongno was installed as ASDAR state regent in June during the 127th NSDAR Continental Congress in Washington, D.C. Since then, she has visited several DAR chapters across the state and intends to visit all 43 of them before her two-year term comes to a close.
She will be among DAR members serving refreshments Dec. 2 at the Old State House Museum’s Christmas Open House in Little Rock, which is free and open to the public.