Photo By Leticia Hopkins | Col. Keith Palm, Public Health Command-Atlantic senior nurse executive, points to an...... read more read more
FORT BELVOIR, Virginia – The Regional Health Command-Atlantic Headquarters team created a Hall of Heroes that honored veterans and showed their impact on family members while also creating an opportunity for staff to connect.
“I’m so excited the Hall of Heroes served as a venue for our team to connect to their families’ history and to each other,” said Col. Jan Maby, RHC-A Preventive Medicine chief and RHC-A Hall of Heroes developer. “We tend to work in our sections/silos at the headquarters, and the hall allowed for the opportunity to connect.”
The RHC-A Hall of Heroes was on display at the region’s headquarters building on Fort Belvoir until the end of November. National Veteran and Military Families Month – a time to recognize veterans and military families for their service and sacrifices – is observed annually in November.
Sgt. 1st Class Brian Trukki, National Guard medical readiness non-commissioned officer who shared information about his grandfather retired Air Force Maj. Wallace C. Trukki, a Distinguished Flying Cross recipient, said it was huge for morale.
“I’m very happy to be able to share his story [and] let people know about my papa because obviously, we’re very proud of him and our family,” added Trukki.
Trukki and several other RHC-A Headquarters team members displayed memorabilia to tell the stories of their veteran heroes, share their pride in being part of a military family, show their family’s legacy of service and deepen connections with family members and each other.
“It was a way for me to connect with my family members – my great grandfather and grandfather are no longer around,” said Maj. Graham Clark, RHC-A regional environmental health consultant. “I actually didn’t know either of them because my grandfather died when I was very young.”
Clark, whose great grandfather Elmer R. Severin was an Army World War I veteran and grandfather Donald H. Severin was an Army World War II veteran, added that by participating in the Hall of Heroes, he had the opportunity to learn more about his family and connect with others.
In July, team members were invited to begin contributing items of their military heroes to display in the RHC-A Hall of Heroes. As the team brought in items to display, they shared the stories of their family members’ and their own military experiences through photos and other memorabilia.
“There are some neat stories,” said Dr. Edward Van Oeveren, RHC-A physician. “I’ve learned some fascinating stuff about some of my coworkers’ families that I had no idea about.”
Staff members who participated were able to share stories about their service along with their familial ties to military service with RHC-A staff.
“Fun fact,” said Pamela Nash, U.S. Army Medical Command Staff Judge Advocate Office of Soldiers Counsel civilian attorney and Army veteran, “I come from a very military family covering four generations and all branches of service. There has been a Nash in every war from World War I through today.
“Among all the great uncles and cousins and grandparents who served, I am the only woman in my family to wear the uniform,” Nash added.
By displaying memorabilia in the Hall of Heroes, RHC-A team members were also able to share the connections that they shared with their military hero.
Clark said he placed three pictures and a print from the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Hall of Heroes. Adding that while growing up, he used to see the print in his grandmother’s house and knew that his grandfather was a paratrooper. But, it wasn’t until years later that the print would be a symbol of a significant shared experience between him and his grandfather.
“Years and years later, when I went to Airborne School, I saw the same print in a hangar where we would put on our parachutes and wait for aircraft to come,” Clark said. “I thought that connection was very cool.
“My grandfather was in the same unit, so for a very brief amount of time, I was in the same unit as my grandfather,” Clark added.
Several of the participants shared stories of how military service helped their veteran heroes reach their goals – from career to education.
According to Trukki, his papa, Wallace, always knew that he wanted to fly. He initially enlisted in the Marines for four years and then used his G.I. Bill to attend college. While in college, he became an Air Force cadet. After graduation, Wallace commissioned in the Air Force and became a decorated pilot.
“Major Trukki was responsible for locating, and then directing tactical air power against several active antiaircraft positions deep in hostile territory. Despite intense ground fire, he remained on station to direct tactical aircraft against the gun positions while advising them of other active guns in the vicinity,” as stated in the copy of Wallace’s Distinguished Flying Cross citation that was on display.
Van Oeveren also shared how his father, a Marine Corps Veteran, “pulled himself up by his bootstraps” and utilized a service academy to further his education. Since although his father was smart, as a child of the Depression, he didn’t have the financial prospects to attend college.
“He learned about the service academies and saw that as a potential road ahead,” Van Oeveren added. “He attended the Naval Academy.”
Having exposure to the military life or knowing military veterans played a role in how some of the participants viewed the importance of service and whether they considered joining the military or even serving as a government civilian.
“I’m sure it did,” said, Van Oeveren, who is also an Army veteran, about his father’s influence on his decision to join the military. “When you grow up and not only had he been in the service but a lot of fathers of other kids that I knew in my generation had either served or were on active duty.”
Van Oeveren added that he had more exposure to the military and government service in college where he worked as an Army civilian federal summer hire before eventually joining the Army.
“It seemed sort of a natural thing to do and also professionally. It was interesting because by training, I am a preventive medicine doc, and the Army has a lot of interesting preventive medicine issues,” Van Oeveren said.
Just as much as exposure to veterans influenced how some chose to serve in the military, it also influenced the type of person that participants wanted to be as they served. Many of the participants saw their military heroes as role models.
“He was sort of a role model for me,” said Van Oeveren of his father, a World War II veteran who later transitioned to a federal service civilian. “I mean not only being very smart, but you know, having a lot of determination and grit and stick-to-it-ness as you might expect with that background, sort of expected high standards and achievement which is probably a good thing for me.”
Several of the participants also shared the pride in and importance of service that their hero veterans left with them and their family members. By sharing their memorabilia and stories, each of the participants was able to share the impact that his or her hero veteran left while serving in uniform.
“My grandfather, Private 1st Class Joseph F. Nash served in the 301st Ambulance Company in World War I from 1917 to 1919,” said Nash.
She added that Joseph, who served as an ambulance driver and litter-bearer, earned the Purple Heart for the injuries he sustained in the Battle of Argonne Forest in France.
“When they returned home, the officers of his company wrote and self-published a unit biography of their training, travel to France and their non-combat life as soldiers and medics,” said Nash. “I donated my grandfather’s copy to the AMEDD Museum. In his service photo, you can see the same MEDCOM insignia that we use today.”
If RHC-A’s Hall of Heroes is indicative of the impact veterans have around the country, then veterans prove to still be assets to their branches after military service. Even the Army recognizes their value to this country after their military service ends.
According to the U.S. Army, once a soldier earns the title of soldier, then he or she is one for life: “Once a soldier, always a soldier … a soldier for life.”
Many of the veterans displayed in the Hall of Heroes are proof of why even after leaving military service, they still have the power to influence, recruit and represent their branches. Those featured in the Hall of Heroes shared their stories, exhibited the values that they learned, showed pride in their service with others, and shared the value that they found in serving. They also took those same skills, training and values to influence communities and organizations.
Like Public Health Command-Atlantic Senior Nurse Executive Col. Keith Palm’s uncle, a former Brooklyn, New York, patrolman tuned war hero who later returned to his life as a police officer after leaving military service.
A 1944 New York Times article that was on display in the Hall of Heroes details how the then Lt. Carl F. C. Palm “attacked five German Tiger tanks and accompanying German infantry alone with hand grenades; killed all five tank commanders with his rifle.”
Palm said his uncle earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions that day in Germany.
“He eventually ended up getting wounded later and was evacuated back to the United States because he wasn’t able to return to combat, but he went on to be a very high-level person in the New York City Police Department,” Palm added.
Now that November has come to an end, the “Hall of Heroes” has come down, but several participants agreed that they would like to see it come back next year. Some are even making plans to take the concept with them, in the case that they relocate.
“I’m probably going to take it with me wherever I go and try to make it happen in any organization that I’m at,” Clark said. “Hopefully, it can become more of a big Army thing rather than a RHC-A only event.”
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2021 16:25 |
| Story ID: | 410735 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 254 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Hall of Heroes allows team to share their veteran and military family memories, by Leticia Hopkins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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