Marines’ Memorial Salutes VIETNAM VETERANS
rifle to help save sol- diers’ lives. For his heroic actions, he was awarded a Bronze Star…the only civilian so honored by the US Army during the Vietnam War. Joe is well- known as the co-author, along with Lieutenant General Hal Moore, of the bestselling books We Were Soldiers Once… and Young and We are Soldiers Still. In his talk, Joe
introduced a very
on thursday night, the 8th of March, the Marines’ Memo- rial held a special program to honor our Vietnam Veterans. We co-sponsored this program with the Association of the US Army (AUSA) and it was one of the best programs we’ve ever held. A crowd of 200 Veterans and guests gath- ered in the Commandants Room for a reception, dinner, speeches and dancing. Chaplain Captain Chuck Root USNR, who was a Marine from his enlisted days, before he joined the Navy, gave a very special invocation before everyone sat down for dinner. After dinner, we introduced our speakers, Joe Galloway and General Tony Zinni. Both moti- vated and moved the audience and both got standing ovations. You absolutely must watch the videos of both speakers online at
www.marineclub.com/videos/. Joe Galloway was a war cor- respondent in November 1965 in Vietnam when he had to put down his camera and pick up an M-16
8 Crossroads Spring 2012
special Veteran in the audience, Mr. Dan Garcia. Dan is a Senior Vice President in Kaiser Perma- nente. He served as a 20-year- old Sergeant in Vietnam in 1968, earning the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and three Purple Hearts. General Tony Zinni retired service as a
after 40 years of Marine, his last tour being Com-
mander, US Central Command. General Zinni had two tours in Vietnam. During his first tour, he was an Advisor to the Vietnamese Marines. On his second tour, as a company commander, he was seriously wounded and evacu- ated. His heroism in that battle was remarkable. Since retirement, General Zinni has taught at sev- eral universities, served as a cor- porate executive and currently is Chairman of the Board for BAE Systems America.
After the speeches, the AUSA representative, BG Tom Swidel, made presentations to both speak- ers before vocalist Liam Tiernan and a group of musicians includ- ing Dave Weeks, vocalist Anna Christina, and pianist Tim Gor- man made a wonderful musical tribute to the Vietnam Veterans. The audience got up from their chairs to dance the night away.
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