The Ewers family is St. Cloud Area School District through and through. Henry and Kathy Ewers are Apollo High School graduates, but their five sons, Henry, Jr., Dominic, Tony (Anthony), Garrett and Montanna are Tech High School graduates. Henry Sr. also served on the Board of Education for District 742 for several years.
They have a strong sense of pride for the school district, but also the country. All five boys went into the military after high school. Four have graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and one from the United States Naval Academy. Though graduating from the Air Force Academy, Henry Jr. and Garrett live civilian lives, while Dominic, Tony and Montanna all have military careers.
“There is a little family rivalry,” laughs Tony, a 1998 graduate.
The trend to attend a military academy started with Henry Jr. Then, one after another, they followed in their older brother’s footsteps.
Tony Ewers
“The military was never anything I thought I’d do,” says Tony. “I was heavily involved in athletics and extracurriculars in high school. I was more excited about the extracurricular activities than the classroom. All I knew is that I wanted to go to college. I wanted to play sports, and I wanted to move. I’d been in Central Minnesota my entire life. I’d never been on a commercial flight before or in another country by the time I graduated high school.”
The lack of traveling in his childhood made him want to travel and see the world as an adult. His first love of football is what he hoped would get him to what he wanted in life. Tony began applying for scholarships and the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program. He knew his older brother, Dominic, was going to the Naval Academy.
One of Tony’s football friends was recruited by the Air Force Academy, so he decided to talk to them about playing football as well.
The academy game him a shot which included a spot on the football team. He finally had his first flight with the Air Force team to Hawaii where he experienced the ocean for the first time.
“I was like, ‘Traveling is awesome!’ I want to do this the rest of my life.”
After his four years at the academy, Tony received his slot for pilot training. At first, he hated it.
“It took me a while for my body to get used to flying,” shares Tony. “I’d get air sickness. There were also things that didn’t make sense … how certain instruments worked. There is a lot more to flying than just a stick and rudders.”
Flying didn’t come easily to Tony. He knew he had to “earn his wings.” Then one day, piloting just clicked for him. He no longer got sick while flying and he began to enjoy it.
Once he completed his training, he was sent to learn how to fly a KC135, the aircraft that completes air-to-air refueling missions. He was later stationed in North Dakota where he was deployed to fly missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. After his tour, he put in a request to fly executive. His request was granted, and he was assigned to the Pentagon. He took a yearlong hiatus to learn to fly another aircraft. Now, he is back at Joint Base Andrews doing a special assignment which happens to be flying Air Force One. He considers it an honor to fly the President of the United States. He also feels lucky to have his youngest brother, Montanna, living across the street in Washington, D.C.
Montanna Ewers
Montanna, a 2004 Tech graduate, followed in his older brother’s footsteps. He received his bachelor’s degree in Humanities from the Air Force Academy. However, he took a slightly different route of the Air Force.
After the first phase [of pilot training],” says Montanna. “I convinced the Air Force that it was in everyone’s best interest that I not become a pilot.”
He was reclassified from flying planes to fixing them instead. Right before his reassignment, he met his wife. It was a whirlwind romance. They met on a Friday, were engaged before noon on Saturday the following day, and were married three and a half weeks later.
Three weeks after his marriage, Montanna was assigned to a base in New Jersey. He spent four years there with one deployment to Southeast Asia doing aircraft maintenance. Then he was located to Germany for several years where he attended an advanced maintenance, operations and munitions school while overseas.
“It was very tough . . .” explains Montanna. “That’s where I really earned my stripes. It’s when I got good at my job.”
The education paid off. His next assignment was at the Pentagon in logistics. It was a great assignment for his family.
“Living across the street from your brother and his kids is not an opportunity active military really ever gets the chance for,” says Montanna.
At the Pentagon, Montanna began building the Air Force’s logistics budget. He went from on-the-ground maintenance of planes to sitting in an office crunching numbers.
“It’s a sink or swim type of job,” laughs Montanna. “Hopefully, you swim because the opportunities are great. I absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite jobs.”
His commanding officers were impressed with his work, so they pushed for a school assignment upon his job conclusion. He is currently finishing his fellowship in strategic communication at George Mason University. He is to return to the Pentagon upon his completion to work in the head Air Force Public Affairs office, but may be deployed to Southeast Asia to command a squadron during his time back at the Pentagon.
“I’ve always just dived right in,” says Montanna. “I’ve worked on seven different aircrafts, built a logistics budget and was responsible for 99 different discreet capability packages we could deploy for missions. I like new things.”
Dominic Ewers
Commanding a squadron is right up Dominic’s alley. The second eldest of the Ewer family and a 1996 Tech graduate, chose the United States Marine Corps over the Air Force.
“The bottom line was my father was enlisted in the Marine Corps,” shares Dominic. “[I remember] Growing up, looking at some of his things he accumulated. I have aunts and uncles that have served as well. We have a little bit of family history for service.”
After high school, Dominic attended the United States Naval Academy. He was of the portion of students that went into the Marine Corps post-graduation. He fulfilled his six months of basic training and was stationed in Florida to complete his education.
“I’m an aviation logistician,” says Dominic. “I pretty much make everything behind the scenes. Unlike my brother, Tony, who actually flies the craft, I’m more in line with Montanna who does the logistics, management and leadership aspects of the aircraft flying safely.”
As a second lieutenant at the age of 24, he was commanding over 200 personnel.
“Being a younger officer, it was kind of the thing that drew me to it,” explains Dominic. “I got so much leadership experience and worked with so many great young marines. We have 18- and 19-year-olds fixing multi-million dollar platforms.”
As a Commanding Officer, Dominic now oversees over 800 marines, sailors and civilians as well as all the parts and assembly for the squadron’s planes. He’s climbed the ranks, and during his tenure, he’s been stationed in seven different locations with tours to Iraq. He is currently resides in California.
When it comes down to it, he chose the Marines because of its variety.
“We’re kind of unique,” smiles Dominic. “We have a Marine air-ground task force. So, we have people on the ground, on the sea and in the air. I just find as far as technology goes, we’re moving away from that civil war style battle–large forces against large forces type. Instead, we’re moving to the technological realm. It’s just interesting to me.”
All three brothers attribute their success to their family foundation as well as the education they received at Tech High School.
“I’ve never regretted a day,” says Tony, looking back on his military career.
“It’s been fun,” agrees Montanna.
Dominic looks forward to his visits back home to the family cabin on Leech Lake. There’s no place like home, especially if you can stir up the rivalry as to which branch of the military is better. One thing is for sure. All five stand strong in their loyalty and conviction to Tech High School and the United States of America.
Henry Jr. Ewers is the Director of Welding Operations at C4Welding. Garrett Ewers is the Chief Integration Officer at Rejuv Medical. Both live and work in the St. Cloud area.
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