Our company purchased a table at this year’s SOWF banquet in Tampa last week. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation may not be as well known as the others, but it holds the highest 4 star rating from Charity Navigator.
The foundation supports the children of fallen Special Operations soldiers through college tuition assistance and other services.
This year, Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry, recent Medal of Honor recipient (and RANGER) was the keynote speaker.
Afterwards, all us old RANGERS got up on stage with him for some pics. Some may recognize Gary O’Neal on the far upper left. Gary was a MACV SOG operator in Vietnam and later teamed up with Col Rowe to set up the SERE course. He was also a founding member of the Golden Knights and was recently inducted into the RANGER hall of fame.
One of the guests we invited for our table was SEAL Team 2 founding member and Vietnam vet Chief James “Patches” Watson. You might remember him from his books Point man, and the sequel- Walking Point. The following day Patches invited us the the Navy UDT-SEAL museum for a personal tour and to see his famous Ithaca shotgun with the duckbill spreader, but I will save that report for the shotgun forum :).
Looks like it was a great event for a cause among the best of them. Seems like Tampa is the preferred town for such things. Been to a few SOFIC’s down there, the mayor or someone downtown must have some clout. Or maybe it’s simply tradition.
I’m sorry I missed this gathering. I try to attend SOF type banquets and conventions to see old friends if I’m in country and not in some sort of training cycle.
Safetyhit, Tampa is always hosting some SOF convention of some type, Special Operations Medical Association (SOMA), SOF industry conference (SOFIC), Special Operations Summit, as well as the annual week long International SOF convention, that I attended back in May, several times a year…as Iraq Ninja stated, it helps that Tampa is home to SOCOM.
Once again the obvious evades me, especially since the parking lot of the convention center is such a good spot to watch F-18’s preparing to land overhead.
Actually I now remember speaking with members of this group several times and bought what I think was one of their commerative style medallions. Pretty sure their booths are based in the lobby area most of the time and not the main floor.
