General Dennis L. Via to Speak at Nashville Rotary

The Nashville Rotary will have a special Rotary Veterans Day celebration honoring men and women who served in the military. The program will include a special recognition of Rotary member veterans, a presentation of colors by Vanderbilt NROTC Color Guard & a baritone soloist will deliver the national anthem. Additionally, we will honor guest WWII African-American veterans (now in their 90’s) who recently received medals for their heroic service in segregated units in WWII.

The special speaker for the Nashville Rotary on November 3, 2014, will be speaker, GEN Dennis L. Via, who became the 18th Commanding General of the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) August 7, 2012. AMC is the Army’s premier provider of materiel readiness to ensure dominant land force capability for the U.S. Warfighters and our allies.

General Dennis L. Via

General Via’s prior assignment was as AMC’s Deputy Commanding General. He deployed to Southwest Asia in October 2011 as the Commander, AMC Responsible Reset Task Force with the mission of leading the strategic integration of the Materiel Enterprise for the Retrograde of equipment and materiel out of Iraq at the conclusion of Operation New Dawn. Prior to that, he served as Director for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems, J-6, The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.

USMC Mark McCann, Sr.(WWII Congressional Gold Medal Recipient), Mark McCann, Jr.(Iraq) and Bert Watkins (Vietnam Purple Heart)

Mr. Henry Shaw (WWII)

Along with WWII Veterans, other special Veterans in attendance to hear General Via will be the Triple Nickels, the first Black Paratroopers in the U. S. Army; Bert Watkins, USMC Purple Heart Recipient who fought courageously in the Operation Swift; Don McCasland, Army Veteran from Desert Storm, OIF, OEF, and co-founder of SAFE (Soldiers and Families Embraced) along with Co-founder, Veteran Rev. Jodi McCullah; Rick DelaHaya, Air Force Veteran who assisted communications for President Clinton and President Bush during 9-11.

 

It is worth noting that many of the guest veterans were hosts to thousands active duty members of the military, veterans, and their families who visited the Steve Mumford's War Journals 2003-2013 exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. They gave moral support and counseling while sharing their experiences with others.