Our weekly series, Remembering our Veterans continues with the story of Strong Vincent High School graduate Tony Quinn. 

Quinn spent 32 years in the U.S. Army, including his final stop, in the U.S. Armed Special Operations Command. Now he's working on a new project to help Veterans here in Erie and across the nation.

He signed up for duty right out of high school after losing out on two scholarship opportunities.
 
"So I lost a football scholarship, and I lost a ROTC scholarship at Youngstown State University and being home one day trying to decide what to do and didn't want to embarrass my parents," said Quinn. "I decided I create this hole and this mess and I'll get out of it." 
 
Thinking about putting on that uniform for over three decades. Never gets old.
 
"To have the privilege to serve alongside of great men and women and experience the highs and lows alongside them to me is the essence of being that veteran," said Quinn. "Everyone is doing the best they can to achieve one goal and one goal only, and that is to complete the mission and to and to be successful in the end and hopefully bring everybody home and that latter part, not everybody comes home."
 
"The people that didn't make it, home how much do they inspire you," I asked. 
 
"They inspire me every day because I just can't see and and think that they have lost their lives for nothing," Quinn. 
 
Quinn is starting a nonprofit called Veterans Victory Games, and he'll set up his headquarters in Erie with the goal of having the inaugural games in May of 2024. The games will serve as a vehicle to reach out to local veterans in so many different ways.
 
"Access and placement I mean, access to resources is is the key is the difficulty. It's a one stop shop," Quinn. "All the resources there, they have access to it and if there's a third party where they have to leave that destination to go and get whatever they need to get, it will be done."
 

Tony just accepted a position at Collegiate Academy starting on April 15th working their ROTC program. The Veterans Games consist of recreational and adaptive sports and will take place at local universities and school districts.

Tony Quinn, thank you for your service.