12:00 AM - 12:00 AM
The (2015) HUD Veterans Day Theme is: “Honoring All Who Served”. The event included a continental breakfast and a Pinning Ceremony for 31 Vietnam Era veterans and family members.
The (2015) HUD Veterans Day Program featured, as Keynote Speaker, the Honorable Everett Alvarez, distinguished Naval Officer, Attorney, and former government executive, best known to the public as the first American aviator shot down over North Vietnam. He was taken prisoner on August 5, 1964, and held in North Vietnam as a POW for 71/2 years, until the general release of the American prisoners on February 12, 1973.
Other distinguished guest included: Dr. Irene Trowell-Harris, former Director, U. S. Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans, Ms. Tammie Lambert, Director, District of Columbia Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs, (a OEF/OIF/OND Veteran, John E. Angevine, Colonel USA (Ret.), Executive Fellow for Veterans Affairs, Brookings Institute - Executive Education, and Barbara Ward, Director, Center for Minority Veterans, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and Lloyd Calderón, MA (USAF, Retired), Senior Business Opportunity Specialist, U.S. Small Business Administration, and other distinguished guests.
This event will also include appearances from the Military District of Washington Joint Forces Ceremonial Color Guard, and Bugler, the Montgomery County Public Schools Junior ROTC Cadets, the Prince George’s County Public Schools Junior ROTC Cadets, and others.
The program included a collaboration with the Washington Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) and feature a (2015) “Veterans Health & Education Fair”. The purpose of this collaborative (“Health & Education Fair”) outreach event is to continue to educate, inform, and enroll our military veteran employees, and their family members/dependents, into the VA Medical Benefits program and make them aware of their available medical benefits and other VA programs.