VAN JENERETTE Biography....
Van Jenerette grew up like thousands of other Americans. The son of an Army Air Corps veteran who served on a B-17 Bomber in World War II, Van was one of eight children. He was a Boy Scout, delivered newspapers to earn money, parked cars, carried groceries, ran the mile in high school, and grew his hair long in the 1960's. In a way, he grew up between two worlds; one was on the city line of Philadelphia, the other was along the roads, rivers and beaches of Horry County.
He learned to shoot a rifle in the woods near Conway, became street-smart on the southwest side of 'Philly' and later he performed as the lead singer of a rock band in Hollywood, California. Shortly after he turned 19, Van joined the Army, served in a combat zone, married twice, and had five children...
Van worked and went to night school before being selected for the Army's Bootstrap degree completion program to attend Troy State University, Alabama where he graduated Summa cum Laude in 1981. He later received his Masters Degree from the University of Kansas in 1988.
Van served as a Congressional Staff Assistant to U.S. Rep. Arthur Ravenel, Jr., 1st Congressional District, South Carolina from 1992 to 1994 and was a candidate for the Congressional District seat in the 2000 election. He has also served as a member of the City of North Myrtle Beach Planning Commission and an ex-officio member of the Horry County Planning Commission. Van is currently a Senior Policy Advisor to 1st District U.S. Representative Henry Brown.
Van now teaches Political Science, Leadership Development, and Sociology as a full time faculty member at Southeastern Community College and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of South Carolina, where he has also taught Sociology.
Van had a distinguished military career. Enlisting as a private during the Vietnam War in 1967, he rose through the ranks
to Staff Sergeant, received a commission and completed his service in 1991 with the rank of Major, Regular Army, Infantry. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, and he served fourteen Army tours, including a combat tour with an Infantry Battalion on the Korean DMZ during the USS Pueblo Crisis. His assignments included tours of duty with the 1st Special Forces Group (ABN), Okinawa; the United Nations Honor Guard Contingent, Korea, which included service with United Kingdom British and Ghurkha forces and early in his career he saw duty as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Today both Van and his wife Katherine, an Army veteran of The Persian Gulf War, are active members of VFW POST 10804. Van is also a member of the American Leigion and TROA.
Van was recognized as one of the five finalists for the 1997 North Carolina Teaching Excellence Award and received a NISOD Excellence Award from The University of Texas at Austin in 1998. Van was selected for the Southeastern Community College "Outstanding Faculty Award," for the 1995-96 school year, and he is a recipient of the Department of Defense's Thomas Jefferson Award. Van is also an active member of the American Mensa Society. Van is a Charter Member of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Jenerette was a participant in the 1998 North Carolina-South Carolina Border Planning Conference which addressed the major regional issues for economic development, environment, health care, education and technology. Invited to speak in many forums, Van was a keynote speaker at the National Deliberation Day Conference, Rider University, NJ, in 1997,
and a speaker at the Interracial Solidarity March, Washington D.C., in 1996. Recently, he has been a guest host of conservative Talk Radio programs, an invited speaker at the Halifax Community College Diversity Forum and was the keynote speaker at the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia on the Bill of Rights Day commemoration in December 2000. He has authored numerous articles and journal pieces and is currently working on a book, "Myths, Lies, Truth and Politics: Ingredients of a New American Society."
Van is married to Katherine Schmidt of Newport News, Virginia who served with the US Army in Operation Desert Storm and now teaches American History and Western Civilization as an adjunct faculty member at Southeastern Community College. She received her Bachelors Degree in History from USC - Coastal Carolina Campus and holds a Masters Degree from USC - Columbia. Her post graduate school work includes ongoing research of the NOTITIA DIGNITATUM - a Latin manuscript written during the 5th century A.D. about the ROMAN ARMY and MILITARY units, their disposition and 'order of battle' during the period of the late Roman empire. Katherine presented her initial research at the University of South Carolina Second Annual Late Antiquity Symposium - held in Columbia, South Carolina in May 1998 and has plans to publish a book on the topic in the future. Van and Katherine have a 8-year old son, Christian, a 4-year old daughter, Benjamin Elizabeth and a 3-year old daughter, Drake. They are expecting their fourth child in July. Van also has a son, Vandon IV, who is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and a married daughter, Suyong, who lives in Denver. Van is an athlete, a scuba-diver and a runner who has competed in every distance from the mile through the 26-mile marathon. While in the Army, he competed in the 1990 U.S. Army Europe Track and Field Championships.
5th Century Roman Military Shield Emblems from the Notitia Dignitatum
It's the person who makes all the difference.
"... your education is the key to our future."
Jenerette's family history reads like a history of the Carolina lowcountry - he is a direct descendant of Sgt. Elias Jeanerett who enlisted in Georgetown and served with the Colonial Artillery at Ft. Moultrie in 1776. His great-great grandfather, Samuel Jenrette of Horry County, served in the CSA with Manigault's Battalion of South Carolina Artillery during the Civil War - Van's daughter Benjamin was baptised in the Old French Huguenot Church in Charleston and his son Christian was born at the old Naval base...
