Retired Army Vet Honored as Indiana Launches Civic News App
INDIANAPOLIS — In an era where artificial intelligence and unverified online content increasingly blur the line between real and fake information, a new national civic initiative has launched in Indiana—starting with a tribute to a decorated hometown hero.
On July 29, 2026, state and city leaders gathered at the Julia M. Carson Government Center in Indianapolis to honor Sergeant Major Mary L. Aurtrey, U.S. Army (Retired), for nearly a half-century of public service. The ceremony doubled as the official launch of HeroByApp™, the public activation arm of CityByApp™, a patent-pending civic publishing platform designed to guarantee source verification for local news, safety alerts, and community updates.
Indiana marks the first state in the company’s national “Founding 50” rollout, establishing a model that ties technological trust directly to community recognition.
Sergeant Major Aurtrey was selected as the inaugural Hero of the Founding 50, representing Indiana as the first of 50 honored leaders across the nation. Aurtrey’s career spans 22 years of active military duty in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1991, during which she was stationed across the United States, Korea, Germany, and Belgium, including work in the speechwriters’ office at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Following her military retirement, she gave another 25 years as a federal civil servant at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in Indianapolis before retiring in 2016.
Her military and civil honors include seven Army Good Conduct Medals, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Indiana Governor’s Torchbearer Award (2013), and induction into the Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame (2022). In her local community, Aurtrey has led Women In Networking, served as Chaplain of American Legion Women’s Post 438, presided over Woman’s Life Chapter 703, supported homeless female veterans through the Sister Soldier Network, and established the Claudia Gilliard Scholarship Fund.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Aurtrey received proclamations across multiple levels of government:
State Honor: Named a “Distinguished Hoosier” by proclamation under the Great Seal of the State by Indiana Governor Mike Braun.
City Honor: Proclaimed July 29, 2026, as “Mary L. Aurtrey Day” by Indianapolis Mayor Joseph H. Hogsett, presented by Ron Rice, Director of Veteran Services.
Congressional Honor: Presented with the Sheila Corcoran Hoosier Women Hero Award on behalf of Congressman André Carson (IN-07) by representative Heather Harvey.
“I served 22 years in the Army and 25 more in the Civil Service, and I never left Indianapolis—I retired from the military and from the Civil Service right here at home,” said Sergeant Major Aurtrey. “To be honored this way means the world to me. But what moves me most is that this honor does not stop with me. It opens a trusted place my whole community can rely on. Service does not end when the uniform comes off, and now the work so many of us do can keep reaching the people who need it.”
The platform’s debut addresses a growing crisis in digital media: the rapid rise of unverified and AI-generated content impersonating legitimate local news, emergency alerts, or municipal notices. According to media tracking firm NewsGuard, more than 3,700 AI-generated news websites were operating with little to no human oversight as of June 2026. Furthermore, a 2023 AP-NORC survey indicated that 65 percent of Americans favor clear labeling for AI-generated content.
CityByApp™ aims to solve this by requiring strict identity verification before any entity can post updates. Only verified local governments, school districts, nonprofits, licensed businesses, and approved media outlets are granted publishing rights. The platform features no anonymous accounts, no automated bots, and no algorithm dictating visibility.
“We built CityByApp™ for one reason,” said Jerome Mark Mikulich, Founder and CEO of CityByApp™ Inc. “In the age of AI, the hardest question a citizen faces is no longer whether they can find local information, it is who published it and whether they can trust the source. Our answer is accountability. We do not police how anyone writes, and we are not against AI. What we guarantee is that every organization on the platform is identity-verified and stands behind what it publishes, so you always know exactly who is speaking.”
The launch model, summarized by the company’s motto “Honor a Hero. Activate a State. Verify the Source,” utilizes the recognition of a local leader to unlock platform access statewide. By honoring Aurtrey, CityByApp™ officially opened eligibility for roughly 719,000 registered businesses, 92 counties, and nearly seven million residents across Indiana to claim free, verified profiles.
The program operates entirely without public tax dollars, funded instead through nonpartisan corporate sponsorships. Indiana’s inaugural activation was sponsored by Blue Sky Financial Partners alongside the Centers for Digestive Health. Sponsors fund verified access for the community but hold no editorial control over content, verification procedures, or honoree selection.
“Local trust is the most valuable thing a community has, and it is under real pressure right now,” stated Todd Wooten of Blue Sky Financial Partners. “Sponsoring HeroByApp™ in Indiana lets us fund something that stays free for every town, nonprofit, and business in our state, with no strings attached to the content.”
Following its Indiana launch, CityByApp™ plans to activate the remaining 49 states, honoring one community hero in each state to build out its national verified publishing network.
About CityByApp™
CityByApp™ is a verified civic publishing platform where only identity-verified local stakeholders canpublish and every update is source-traceable, so citizens always know the source before they trust the update. The platform has no AI features and no bots, and generates no content of its own. It is available across all 50 U.S. states, following beta deployments in 25 markets, with more than 277,000 verified member profiles across 160-plus countries and territories. The verification technology is patent-pending. CityByApp™ Inc. is a Delaware corporation. Get Connected. Be Rewarded.
About HeroByApp™
HeroByApp™ is the public activation program of CityByApp™ Inc. It honors one community Hero in each of the fifty states, the Founding 50, and through that recognition opens statewide access to the platform at no cost. Local Honor. Global Impact.
About ByApp.ai
ByApp.ai is the American-built intelligent infrastructure planned to power the platform’s next generation, including AI-assisted publishing tools with clearly labeled AI-generated content. It is in active development and arriving 2027. The Intelligent Infrastructure Platform.
