Veterans Advantage Awards CelebVet: Chuck Norris, Karate Champion & Actor Carlos Ray Norris, son of an Irish mother and a Cherokee Indian father who abandoned the family, found salvation in the Air Force. He is also involved with The Fund for Kids, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the United War, and the VA’s National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans.
Veterans Advantage Awards CelebVet: Al Bumbry, Baseball All-Star Of the thousands of professional athletes – in major league baseball, basketball, and football, in tennis and golf – only a handful served on active duty during the years of the Vietnam War. This was a major difference between Vietnam and World War II, when major leaguers flocked to enlist by the hundreds, often to the detriment of their careers.
Veterans Advantage Awards CelebVet: Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune Sajak, a Chicago native, left college to join the Army in what he calls “a burst of patriotism.” His hope was to get to work for Armed Forces Radio. Instead, he was trained as a clerk-typist. Sent to Vietnam as a finance clerk, he wrote to his congressman
Veterans Advantage Awards CelebVet: Hal Linden, Actor and Singer Hal Linden, the multi-talented actor, singer, and musician who is this year’s Chairman of the VA’s National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, opened the Broadway season in a new play entitled "The Gathering" by Arje Shaw.