JBLM Graduation Ceremony the “bow on top” for graduating couple

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Chief Warrant Officer 2 Johnnie Esmond, an active guard reservist with F Company, 2-135th General Support Aviation Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and his wife, Aimee Esmond, a fiscal analyst for Washington State, have spent their share of time apart as a U.S. Army family.

They met after Johnnie’s 2009 deployment to Iraq, reconnected during his 2015/2016 deployment to Afghanistan, and were married in 2017, just two years before Johnnie’s next deployment to Iraq.

“Forty-eight hours after we got married, I was gone for a two-week trip,” he said. “So, she was bathed by fire in the being-apart department.”

But this year, during Johnnie’s 20th year of service, the couple reached and celebrated a goal together — college graduation. Johnnie and Aimee were both recognized for receiving their bachelor’s degrees during the 38th annual JBLM Graduation Ceremony, held May 29 at Hal and Inge Marcus Pavilion, Saint Martin’s University, Lacey.

They were one of two married couples recognized during the ceremony, among about 185 service members, spouses, dependents, veterans and retirees who earned most of their degrees within the past year. Several of JBLM’s David L. Stone Education Center staff members were also recognized for earning their degrees, along with two doctoral degree recipients.

Keynote speaker Brigadier General Joe Escandon, JBLM deputy commanding general of I Corps, said the graduates represent the best of the installation and encouraged them to be lifelong learners who, in turn, encourage others in their formations to do the same.

“Education is not a finish line — it’s a force multiplier,” he said. “It makes you a better leader, a better teammate and a better version of yourself.”

Johnnie earned his degree in applied management from Grand Canyon University, and he, Aimee and their daughter, Miah Morley, all attended the GCU ceremony in April in Phoenix, Arizona. They also plan to attend Aimee’s graduation from Western Governors University in Seattle in July, when she’ll officially earn her accounting degree.

“I got to graduate on my own to celebrate me, she’ll get to graduate on her own to celebrate her — but it’s really, really cool that JBLM offers this chance for us to walk together, because we did it essentially at the same time,” Johnnie said.

And that was “a lot of work,” he said, explaining that he started taking classes first, and things became tougher when they were simultaneous students.

“It was almost like coming home from a deployment and having to readjust what everybody does,” he said. “She was used to dealing with everything on her own, but now she had her responsibilities at school, and so I had to learn to do the things that she did, and it was a bit of a challenge, and there were definitely weeks where not everything got done.”

Additionally, for a few months, Morley was taking college courses, too, as she graduated from high school with an associate degree, Aimee said.

“All of us would come home from our days and we'd have some dinner, we'd clean up a little bit and then all of us would go right into school,” she said. “And that just became our routine.”

Aimee had been talking about going back to school longer than Johnnie and watching him start first was encouraging, she said.

“Seeing that he could balance his schedule and his schoolwork kind-of motivated me to be like, ‘Well, if he can balance his stuff, maybe I can, too,’” she said.

And she did.

“To be able to actually do something for myself was pretty important and just a good opportunity and timing,” she said, adding that Johnnie “was very supportive and always helped pick up the slack.”

Both Esmonds received their degrees in the mail on the same day, April 7, and they snapped a selfie to commemorate the moment.

Being able to walk together at JBLM was “like the nice little bow on top,” Johnnie said. “While we both did our own work to get to where we are to finish, we did it together the whole time.”

Although it wasn’t always easy, the couple said they would encourage other service members and spouses to pursue their degrees, too, no matter how long it takes. Johnnie had some prior college credits and studied with GCU from July 2024 to March 2026, taking one month off for a temporary duty assignment and another for medical reasons. Aimee participated in an accelerated program through WGU from May 2025 to March 2026.

Johnnie said he would “100% tell anybody who’s considering (getting) a degree to go to Stone Education Center, to talk to them, to just take some classes (and) use the tuition assistance benefit.”

“Basically, if we can do it, anybody else can do it, too,” Aimee said.

To learn more about reaching academic goals at JBLM, visit [https://home.army.mil/lewis-mcchord/about/Directorates-support-offices/dhr/aces#qt0:0](https://home.army.mil/lewis-mcchord/about/Directorates-support-offices/dhr/aces#qt0:0).