About 80 Chadron High School students be the guests of honor on Thursday, April 25 at the 55th annual Kiwanis Honors Program in the high school auditorium, starting at 1:30 p.m. The program will be open to the public.

The honorees include the Gold Honor Roll students, the 14 students who earned medals at this year’s Chadron State College Scholastic Contest, Chadron’s three Cornhusker Girls State delegates, the Hugh O’Brien Youth program delegate and seniors who will receive Presidential Academic Excellence Awards.

Also to be recognized is freshman Shoilee Rahman, who recently won first place in an essay contest sponsored by the Nebraska Bar Association Foundation.

The speaker will be retired Army Colonel Kim Henningsen of Hot Springs whose varied background includes combat, defense intelligence, liaison work with the CIA, helping bring peace to southern Africa, and teaching and coaching in Hot Springs.

Henningsen graduated from West Point in 1968 and went to Vietnam, where he was burned over 60% of his body when a recon platoon he was leading was ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers. He was hospitalized for a year, but then returned to Vietnam as an adviser to a South Vietnamese Ranger Battalion.

Much of the remainder of his 34-year military career focused on Africa, living with his family in Zimbabwe or South Africa for 8 years and visiting every major country on the continent.

Henningsen was the Defense Department action officer in Africa and drafted the Angola peace plan that led to the withdrawal of South African, Cuban, and Soviet forces and advisors.

After the treaty was signed, he was appointed the Defense and Army attaché in South Africa, and worked on political and military issues to help end apartheid and minority rule.

Henningsen’s last two years in the Army were at the CIA Headquarters where he served as a liaison officer in the Operations Directorate responsible for Africa.

He retired from the Army in June 1998 and moved back to South Dakota…where he spent 13 years as a teacher and coach at Hot Springs High before retiring for a second time. Henningsen and his wife Rachel continue to live in Hot Springs.

The Gold Honor Roll students who will be presented certificates are:

Seniors

Nicky Applegarth,  Lane Chasek, Carly Churchill, Joanne DeRosa, Cole Dockweiler, Maggie Earney, Ashlyn Eitemiller, Cortland Goffena, Briley Hannaford,  Larissa Hastings, Kelli Haynes, Calen Johnson, Brittany Kouba, Michael Kruse, Abigail McFee, Jasmine McLain, Terran Merriman-Honerkamp, Cy Rayhill, Colby Riesen,  Dillon Vogt.

Juniors

Jenna Banzhaf, Alec Burk, Cali Crile, Elizabeth Darnell, Maaryn Davis, Spencer Eliason, Kaylee Gaswick, Logan Lembke, Kodi Milburn, Ashtyn Nelson, Kristavia Passero,  Caston Stack, Tatum Westemeier.

Sophomores

Sydney Blome, Bradly Cerny, Shay Chamberlain, Jackson Dickerson, Shawn Eitemiller, Aaron Gaswick, Joshua  Hill, Keenan Johnson, Veronica Parish, Brittani Piontek, Alaina Riesen, Trace Strotheide, Sara Tompkins, Alex Westerbuhr.

Freshmen

Amrit Chima, Muphry Churchill, Aly Crow, Tate Cullers, Toni Doescher, Zachery Fankhauser, Jayden Garrett, Mikaela Hastings, Hannah Jamison, Allie Johnson, Harlie Kennell, Marcus LaPorte, Clay Madsen, Gregory McCallum, Kiya Passero, Tiffani Pile, Shoilee Rahman, Simon Rischling, Naleka Sayaloune, Seth Sloan, Jayden Stack, Kane Wellnitz.