Cover Story: Bill Broyles Joins Veterans Advantage Board of Advisors

PENN Award-winning author and screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. has joined the Board of Advisors of VeteransAdvantage, the Company’s Founder and CEO, Scott Higgins, has announced.

For Mr. Broyles, joining the Board presents another opportunity to serve his fellow Veterans. He served with Mr. Higgins on the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission. Mr. Broyles, who often spoke at events on the Commission’s behalf, was a member of the professional jury that chose finalists in the design competition for the memorial. He also wrote the foreword to Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, the best-selling book that was inspired by the letters collected for the memorial and edited by Bernard Edelman, Director of Content Development for VeteransAdvantage.

His addition to the VeteransAdvantage Advisory Board "is reflective of his commitment and ours to do something positive for our nation’s Veterans," said Mr. Higgins, a former Army lieutenant who served in Vietnam in 1967-68. The other members of the Board are: Paul (Buddy) Bucha, former Army captain and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor who is now Chairman of the Board of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation; former Marine Gerry Byrne, President and CEO of "Stagebill," the publication of the performing arts; United States Olympic Hall of Famer Donna de Varona, who won two Gold Medals at the 1964 Games held in Tokyo; Lt. Gen. Robert E. Kelley, USAF (Ret.), President of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge; and former naval officer and Vietnam Veteran Ed Vick, Chairman and CEO of Y&R Advertising, one of the largest ad agencies in the world.

Mr. Broyles, who served as a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, has had a distinguished career in several facets of the media. The founding editor of "Texas Monthly" magazine, which won a trio of National Magazine Awards during his stewardship. He also was editor of "California Magazine" and "Newsweek." He is the author of a critically acclaimed memoir, Brothers in Arms: A Journey from War to Peace, an account of his return to Vietnam in 1984.

He was the co-creator and executive consultant to the Emmy Award-winning TV series “China Beach,” which was set in an evacuation hospital in Vietnam. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for the Academy Award and Writer’s Guild Award for "Apollo 13," for which he won the PEN Center Literary Award for best screenplay. His most recent work is the current hit, "Cast Away," starring Tom Hanks.