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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — When there’s a situation in the room, Colonel Chris Schlafer moves into motion.

He’s at the top of the table.

He’s the Commandant at New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy.

WGNO Good Morning New Orleans features reporter Bill Wood has our Veterans Voices.

Colonel Chris Schlafer was an active Marine for 29 years.

He’s had three tours of combat.

That includes serving time in the Middle East.

He’s a veteran who’s on the job to share the spirit of the service.

Colonel Schlafer is the big man on campus at New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy or NOMMA as it’s called by the students.

There are almost one thousand of them who come to the school to prepare for college.

About a fourth of them go into the military like Colonel Chris Schlafer.

But they all go on into their lives carrying on in the tradition of the Marines.

As Colonel Schlafer says, “believing in yourself, setting goals, having the perseverance to achieve them, self-discipline, the importance of teamwork and ultimately devoting yourself to an ideal that is greater than yourself.”