For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Montgomery County’s salute to
Vietnam Veterans wins prestigious
national Telly Award for
County’s PEG cable organization
Broadcast of ‘Honor and Gratitude’ event
hosted by legendary broadcaster Bob Schieffer
named among honorees of
38th annual awards program
ROCKVILLE, Md., March 29, 2017—Montgomery County’s PEG cable organization was informed this week that its complete broadcast of the first-ever salute to the County’s Vietnam veterans has won a bronze award in the 38th Annual Telly Awards competition. The Telly Awards are the premier award honoring the best in national television and cable, digital and streaming and non-broadcast productions.
Montgomery County’s PEG (Public / Education / Government) stations combined their resources to organize the event, which was attended by a capacity crowd of more than 800 on Oct. 24, 2015, at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville. The event is viewable on YouTube at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z8qYy7nXksY .
Bob Schieffer, the legendary broadcaster from CBS News, was the host and guest speaker for Honor and Gratitude: Montgomery Salutes Vietnam Veterans. The event was the first by the County to honor its Vietnam veterans since the war ended 40 years earlier. It is estimated that between 130 and 140 Montgomery County residents lost their lives in the Vietnam War. There are more than 13,000 Vietnam veterans currently living in the County.
The event marked the rare appearance together of the five former Vietnam POWs who now are residents of Montgomery County. Everett Alvarez, Jr., Fred Cherry, Michael Cronin, Hubert Clifford Walker and Larry Stark, each of whom endured horrendous conditions as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, but who emerged with a determination to return with “our personal integrity, our reputation and with our honor,” all were present. Mr. Cherry passed away shortly after the event was held.
The event was co-sponsored by County Executive Ike Leggett (who is a Vietnam vet) and the County Council.
The mission of the Telly Awards competition is to “strengthen the visual arts community by inspiring, promoting and supporting creativity.” The Telly Awards competition annually receives more than 13,000 entries from all 50 states and five continents.
The Montgomery PEG organization members that produced the event included County Cable Montgomery (CCM), Montgomery Community Media (MCM), the Montgomery County Public Schools Television (MCPS TV) and Montgomery College Television (MCTV).
MCM entered the broadcast for Telly consideration on behalf of the PEG organization. It was one of four Telly Awards won or shared by MCM in the competition, which presents silver or bronze awards.
Speakers at the event included retired Navy Commander Alvarez, Jr. of Potomac, who was the first American aviator shot down over Vietnam and held prisoner for 8½ years; Brigadier General Wilma Vaught, who retired from the U.S. Air Force as one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history and who was one of the few military women to serve in Vietnam who was not a nurse; Army Lt. Colonel Douglas “Lamar” Allen, Jr., a Burtonsville resident who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying his helicopter in a monsoon to rescue numerous wounded and injured soldiers who were pinned down after an ambush; and Tom Murphy, a current Rockville attorney who was seriously wounded in Vietnam and ironically ended his long recovery in nearby Walter Reed Army Hospital.
# # # # Release ID: 17-107