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News & EventsMineral Wells, TX
February 16, 2003
[PRINTABLE VERSION - PDF]Museum Board of Visitors Continues to Expand
The National Vietnam War Museum is pleased to announce author James Webb has joined its Board of Visitors.
The Board of Visitors is a group that provides advice to the Board of Directors and consists of influential persons from various walks of life. Members include Congressman Sam Johnson, who represents Texas’ Third Congressional District; Mr. Adrian Cronauer, a prominent Washington attorney and former USAF disk jockey of Good Morning Vietnam fame; Mr. Magne Hagen, who recently retired as the long-time personal Secretary to the King of Norway; and Mr. Jim Young, a Korean War veteran and immediate Past President of the American Legion, Department of Texas.
James H. Webb, Jr., is a US Naval Academy graduate, USMC Vietnam veteran, best-selling author, and former Secretary of the Navy, to name but a few of his accomplishments. Mr. Webb comes from a family with a strong citizen-soldier military tradition that predates the Revolutionary War. Family members have served during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, the Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. Growing up as an “Air Force brat,” it was inevitable that Mr. Webb would continue this tradition.
While attending the University of Southern California on an NROTC academic scholarship, Mr. Webb received an appointment to the Naval Academy, graduating in 1968 and choosing a commission in the Marine Corps. While at the Academy, he was a four-year member of the Honor Committee, a varsity boxer, and received a Superintendent’s Commendation for outstanding leadership contributions. After commissioning, Mr. Webb graduated first in his class at the Marine Corps Officer’s Basic School in Quantico, Virginia.
In Vietnam, Mr. Webb served as a rifle platoon leader and company commander with the Fifth Marine Regiment, and was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts. Following Vietnam, he served as a platoon commander and as an instructor in tactics and weapons at Marine Officer Candidates School, and as a member of the Secretary of the Navy’s immediate staff.
After leaving the Marine Corps in 1972, Mr. Webb attended Georgetown University Law School, receiving his Juris Doctorate in 1975. While at Georgetown, he won the Horan prize for excellence in legal work, began a six-year, pro bono representation of a Marine who had been convicted of war crimes in Vietnam (clearing the man in 1978), and authored his first book, Micronesia and U. S. Pacific Strategy. He also worked as a consultant to the Governor of Guam.
Mr. Webb has written six best-selling novels, taught literature at the Naval Academy, traveled worldwide as a journalist, and won an Emmy Award for his PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut. He served as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, and Secretary of the Navy. He has received numerous awards for community service and professional excellence, and travels extensively as a journalist, business consultant, and screenwriter-producer. Three of his novels have been purchased for film projects, including Rules of Engagement, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.
The National Vietnam War Museum welcomes Mr. Webb to the Board of Visitors and is looking forward to a long and mutually supportive relationship.
The National Vietnam War Museum is an IRS 501(c) (3) organization incorporated in the State of Texas. For more information about the museum and its activities, contact them at P. O. Box 146, Mineral Wells, TX 76068, or on line at www.nationalvnwarmuseum.org.
