Francis Coté Is This Week’s Hometown Hero

It’s time once again for our Hometown Hero, brought to you by Batavia Downs Gaming with help from our friends at WNY Heroes who help us with our nominations every week.  This week, our Hometown Hero is from Williamsville, NY.  It’s United States Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer Francis Coté!

Coté was born in Quebec, Canada and immigrated to this country after he was orphaned as a child.  He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1977 and did tours in Camp LeJeune, Okinawa, Japan, and Encino, CA before being selected as a Warrant Officer.  He attended Warrant Officers Candidate School in Quantico, VA specializing in the ordinance management field. He returned to Okinawa Japan for a second tour with the 12th Marines as an Artillery Officer. During that tour, his unit was called up to support the 10th Marines in the Gulf War, Desert Storm in January 1991. He was deployed to Jubayl (pronounced Jew-ball) Kuwait.  After returning from the Gulf War, he was assigned as an inspector for Marine units on the East Coast.  In 1998, he retired his commission and began a new career in technology working for IBM as a Senior Managing Consultant.

Francis’s son Jonathon, a US Army Veteran who served in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, returned to Iraq as a contractor.  He and four other co-workers were kidnapped in November of 2006.  Their mutilated bodies were found and returned to their families in May of 2008.  Their family hosts a yearly motorcycle run in memory of Jonathon with the proceeds going to a scholarship in Jonathon’s name and the rest is donated to Western NY Heroes.

Francis Coté is now retired and enjoys traveling with his wife Nancy and spending time with his children and 3 small grandchildren.

This week, we are honored to shine a spotlight on the sacrifices that this family has made for us and name Francis Coté our Hometown Hero of the week!

If you would like to nominate your own Hometown Hero, click the button below. We like to honor both active duty and veteran heroes from right here in Western New York.

Thanks once again to United States Marine Chief Warrant Officer Francis Coté, our Hometown Hero of the week!