Carry The Load

posted in: Project RELO 0

* * NON-PROFIT PARTNER * * *”

We are proud to announce that for the 2nd year in a row, Project RELO is a non-profit partner with Carry The Load.

Carry The Load is a non-profit organization that provides an active way to connect Americans to the sacrifices made daily by our military, veterans, first responders and their families. They started in 2011 as a mission to restore the true meaning of Memorial Day has now grown to honoring our nation’s heroes 365 days a year. And this is their 10th anniversary.  We could not be more proud to be a part of such an amazing organization.

 

What’s next?

Beginning February 1st, 2021 we will announce our Team page and begin building our team. We hope you will join us in this fundraising campaign from February 1st through May 31st, 2021. Mark Wariner will be our Team Captain again this year and we might have some of the other Alumni directors become captains for their teams.

This campaign will be helping Project RELO raise funds for the year 2021.

If you are interested in joining the team, there is nothing for you to do at this time. If you are wanting to be a volunteer and walk with us or become a team Captain, please click on this link here and connect with our National Alumni Commander, Mark Wariner.

More details to come in just a few weeks.

We would like to thank Carry The Load for this great opportunity to be a part of their organization for their 10th Anniversary of the organization. The only thing left to ask you is this, Who are you carrying?

Introducing New Leadership

posted in: Leadership 0
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We have begun 2021 with some positive changes to the organization. We all know Covid-19 hit hard across the spectrum. As a non-profit we took a step back to refocus and reimagine what Project Relo will look like in the future. We paused our missions and moved our fundraising online. We continue to monitor Covid-19 as we begin to plan our events for 2021.

In the 3rd qtr of 2020, our Executive Director of 5 years Casey McEuin made a decision for his family and resigned from Project RELO. He is a Project RELO Alumni and always will be. He will be missed and is welcome back anytime. We wish him success on his new journey.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_text_separator title=”Let me introduce myself as some of you might be new to the family” color=”black” border_width=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]My name is Mark Wariner and I attended my first mission with Project RELO in 2016. In 2017 my engagement became more formal as I determined this was an organization that I respected and wanted to support. I love what we do and what we stand for. We are working to #ChangeTheNarrative through open dialogue between the Military and Corporate America.

I am pleased to announce our newly appointed CEO, Ron Schwarz. Ron has hit the ground running and will be sharing the future vision in the coming months. We are very excited have Ron on the team and look forward to new growth.

 

I had the pleasure to sit down with Ron for a few moments and ask a few questions.

Q: Ron, Tell us about your work history

A: I have been fortunate to work for three quality Fortune 100 companies throughout my 35+ year professional career. During those years, while the learnings were vast, nearly everything boiled down to: Passion, Integrity, Energy and Execution.

Q: Why do you give back?

A: As I stated in the first question passion, integrity energy and execution are the foundational elements of everything I do.

Giving back is part of my heritage and value system. I have always been involved in youth, education, veteran/military and service organizations.

Q: Tell us a little about your family

A: Great question. Family is important. I have been blessed with a loving wife for 30+ years and two healthy (adult) children who make life especially fulfilling.

Q: What else can you tell us?

A: When not engaged in professional activities, I enjoy traveling, skiing, swimming, hiking and paddle boarding.

 

My Favorite quotes: [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Personal:

“I try to skate to where the puck is going to be, vs. where it’s been”
Wayne Gretzgy,  circa 1989[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Professional:

“Strategy without execution is an hallucination”
Thomas Edision,  circa 1900[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]My Favorite movie:

The Hunt for Red October

I am grateful and proud to be a part of this journey, and look forward to our future. – Ron

Thank you Ron for taking a few moments to let us know a little about you.

Feel free to find us on social media and of course keep watching our blog as more information is released. Till next time, stay safe out there.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Project RELO Honors Medal of Honor Recipient, Roger Donlon

The following is an excerpt from the book ‘Above and Beyond – A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam’, 1985 Boston Publishing Company.

“On July 5, 1964, many of the twelve Green Berets manning the camp at Nam Dong were convinced that their post was about to be attacked. Nam Dong’s location in the central highlands of South Vietnam, only twenty-four kilometers from Laos, invited constant probing by VC and NVA troops infiltrating over the border. In the past two days, patrols had encountered evidence of a greater enemy presence, including the bodies of two murdered village chiefs. Also, a recent scuffle between the South Vietnamese troops and the montagnard natives of the highlands had fragmented the force, and this infighting had probably come to the attention of the enemy. By the night of the fifth, the mood was one of jittery anticipation: One American wrote his wife, “All hell is going to break loose here before the night is over.”

Early the next morning Captain Roger H.C. Donlon was finishing his patrol of the American sector of the camp. A native of New York State, Donlon had enlisted in the Army in 1958 after two years in the Air Force and one year at West Point. Now, after training at the Army’s Special Forces school at Fort Bragg, he was commander of Detachment A-726 at Nam Dong, numbering over 300 men, mostly South Vietnamese and montagnards. Donlon also expected an attack that night, but as he walked around the camp at 2:25 A.M., all was quiet, leading him to think that perhaps he had been wrong.

Moments later Captain Donlon’s worst fears were confirmed. An enemy mortar round whistled into the camp, destroying the mess hall Donlon was about to enter. Another shell hit the command post, setting it on fire. Small-arms fire and explosions erupted in the darkness around the camp.

A nearby mortar explosion knocked Donlon to the ground. Pulling himself up, he scrambled to a mortar pit, grabbed a flare gun, and fired, only to hear the shell fizzle out in the darkness. He moved to the next emplacement for more rounds.

In the light of another flare, Donlon saw three VC sappers – guerrillas wired with explosives – lurking near the gate. He set his AR15 rifle on semi-automatic and squeezed off six rounds, then threw a hand grenade, killing all three of the raiders.

As Donlon ran for the next pit a grenade exploded near him, driving shrapnel into his left arm and stomach. Despite his wounds, he visited three additional emplacements, helping his men direct fire at guerrillas trying to scale or blast through the fence. He was hit again by gragments from at least three mortar blasts, which wounded his leg and side. Bleeding heavily now, Donlon made for another pit, where he and three other Americans continued firing. The pit was, in Donlon’s words, “a hellhole.” The VC had overrun part of the outer sector of the camp and threatened to breach the inner American perimeter. Grenades were now coming over the fence five or six at a time.

As the onslaught continued, the four men prepared to evacuate the bunker. Donlon fired cover as two men fled, but the third, Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo, was too badly wounded to move. Donlon started to pull Alamo up the steps of the pit just as a mortar round landed at the top of the stairs in front of the captain’s face. Donlon remembered screaming as he took the brunt of the explosion. “I am going to die, I thought. The screaming . . . was the wail of death.”

Donlon did not die, but he was badly hurt, bleeding from wounds to the left shoulder, head, and stomach. He checked Alamo, but the sergeant had been killed by the blast. Donlon ran over to some mantagnards and tended to their wounds, tearing his T-shirt for bandages and using one of his socks as a tourniquet. Ordering the mean to cover him, he scuttled over to another bunker, bent over by the pain of his stomach wounds. After getting a report on the defense of the camp, he was hit again by shrapnel but did not stop for treatment, instead directing his men in the darkness.

An American flareship arrived at 4:00 A.M. but the enemy persisted. From the dark jungle a voice called in Vietnamese and then in English. “Lay down your weapons!” the voice said. “We are going to annihilate your camp! You will all be killed!” But Captain Donlon and the defenders of Nam Dong held out. By daylight what was left of the enemy force, later estimated at over 800, had retreated, leaving over 50 dead. Captain Donlon was directing the treatment and evacuation of the wounded, including, finally, himself. By the end of the year Donlon had recovered from his wounds and was called to the White House to receive the first Medal of Honor for the Vietnam War.”

Thank you Captain Roger Donlon for your service, you can hear Roger tell his story here:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_NS8ejQKAo[/embedyt]
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