(Washington, D.C.) — Vietnam Veterans of America will hold its biennial National Leadership & Education Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, August 11-14. Hundreds of Vietnam War veterans will gather at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront for seminars and workshops on leadership, parliamentary procedure, officer and board responsibilities, and future planning. VVA’s affiliate organization, Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America, will also participate.
Opening Ceremonies will begin Wednesday, August 12, at 8:45 a.m. Philip Napoli, Dean of Humanities at Brooklyn College and author of Bringing It All Back Home: An Oral History of New York City’s Vietnam Veterans, will deliver the keynote address.
Special guests will include the 2026 recipients of the VVA President’s Awards for Excellence in the Sciences and the Arts, to be presented at the Awards Banquet on Saturday evening, August 15. Vietnam veteran Shad Meshad will receive the Sciences Award for his groundbreaking work on PTSD. Arts Awards will go to Paul Sanchez and Cory Glover, cast members of the Vietnam War film Platoon (1986), and to Ron Osgood, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work is shaped by his three aircraft carrier deployments during the Vietnam War.
Sanchez, an actor, director, and screenwriter, has credits that include Born on the Fourth of July, Cast Away, and Navy SEALS. Glover is a singer, songwriter, actor, and founding member of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Living Colour. Osgood’s films include Just Like Me: The Vietnam War/The American War, which interweaves American and Vietnamese stories, and I Do Remember, his latest documentary about an unexpectedly eventful 1972 California road trip he took while on active duty in his old, cranky Volkswagen van. For more information, including the complete conference agenda, go to https://conference.vva.org/
