You won't want to miss this very special night in the history of Northside Christian School - Monday, December 7th.
The Mahaffey Theater Lobby opens at 6:00pm. Seating starts at 6:30pm. Our Salute to Hometown Heroes begins at 7:00pm.
John and Mary K. Wilson will emcee the evening which includes special guest appearances by Gary Littrell, Jeff Brandes, and Romy Camargo.
Please invite your friends and neighbors to this FREE event.
Parking is $10.
John and Mary K. Wilson are a staple of the Tampa Bay Community. The talented and popular couple met while attending Virginia Commonwealth University. For more than 50 years John enjoyed an award winning career in broadcast television, spending more than 30 years right here in Tampa Bay. Mary K. is a professional singer who currently teaches her own private voice studio in both classic and musical theater styles. The Wilson's have three sons, Paul, Mark and Patrick and four grandchildren (two who are current NCS students). Singing together, this talented and popular duo has been delighting audiences throughout Tampa Bay with appearances with The
Florida Orchestra, The Tampa Bay Symphony and the Florida West Coast Symphony.
Gary Littrell was nine years old when his uncle took him to Fort Campbell to watch the 101st Airborne Division make parachute jumps. He always remembered watching the men floating down and saying to himself, someday I'll be doing that. In 1961, on his seventeenth birthday, he joined the Army-once the recruiter guaranteed that he could go to jump school. After graduating from jump school, Littrell was assigned to the 503rd Regiment stationed on Okinawa.
In the early spring of 1970, Littrell was one of four American advisors assisting the 23rd Battalion of the South Vietnamese Army as it looked for North Vietnamese Army units that had been harassing U.S. Special Forces camps in Kontum Province. On April 4, after 473 South Vietnamese Rangers ran into a concentration of approximately five thousand enemy troops, they established a defensive perimeter on a hill against a ferocious mortar attack. The battalion commander and one of the American advisors were killed in the first day of the fighting. Then two other advisors were wounded, leaving Sergeant Littrell in command. Over the next four days, Littrell exhorted the South Vietnamese troops not to give up, despite their heavy losses. Moving along the defensive perimeter, he distributed ammunition and tried to help the wounded. Repeatedly abandoning positions of relative safety, he continually called in air support and artillery fire on the advancing enemy. At times he directed the American air strikes to within a few yards of his own position.
On April 8, 1970, Littrell's commanding officer radioed him to attempt a retreat. Littrell moved out with what was left of the battalion. With helicopter gunships guarding his flanks, Air Force fighters clearing a corridor to his front, and by fighting off constant enemy ambushes, he moved the men five miles to link up with "friendlies." Of the South Vietnamese Rangers who had begun the battle, forty-one walking wounded came out-but the enemy had been virtually annihilated. President Richard Nixon presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to Littrell at the White House on October 15, 1973.
After retirement, Littrell served for many years with the Veterans Administration. In recent years, he has been very active with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, serving as its president for two consecutive terms. Gary and his wife have two sons and four grandchildren (two are current students at NCS).
Senator Jeff Brandes, a true Florida native, was born and raised in St. Petersburg and attended Northside Christian School, where his mother, Mary Brandes, served her entire career as an educator; first as a teacher, then as principal, and finally as Head of School. Like his father and grandfathers before him, Jeff had a deep-rooted desire to serve his country. He joined the United States Army shortly after graduating high school. After graduating from Marion Military Institute in Marion, Alabama, he attended Florida Southern College and subsequently Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1999 with a degree in Business Administration. In February of 2003 Jeff was called to active duty and sent to Iraq to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and as a First Lieutenant served honorably, leading over 75 convoys throughout various regions of Iraq during his fourteen months of deployment.
In his short time in the Legislature, Jeff has made a name for himself as a pragmatic leader who embraces innovative technology and brings creative solutions to the problems facing Tampa Bay. With a particular interest in transportation, Jeff sponsored the bill bringing Google's autonomous vehicle technology to Florida, where it is currently being tested. When the Federal government's failure to act on Flood
Insurance created a crisis for homeowners, Jeff sponsored legislation creating a private, Florida-based marketplace that offered lower rates. Citing an invasion of privacy and lack of safety improvements, Jeff has been a leader in the effort to do away with red light cameras. Jeff and Natalie have been married since 2006, and have 3 children, Lottie, Colin, and Conor.
Chief Warrant Officer Romulo "Romy" Camargo joined the United States Army in 1995 spending most of his time with the 75th Ranger Regiment and 7th Special Forces Group. After 9/11 he was deployed to Afghanistan. The missions were intense, the risk was high, yet every day was fulfilling to someone like Romy, a soldier at heart.
On September 16, 2008 (during his third deployment to Afghanistan), Romy's
mission had been cancelled. He opted to complete a humanitarian mission which involved aiding medical professionals. It was considered low risk but as soldiers know, there is no such thing as low risk when you are in a war zone. Romy's detachment was ambushed. Romy took a gunshot wound to the back of his neck. Laying limp in the bed of his GMV (Ground Mobility Vehicle) soldiers managed to repel the attack, as the team Medic ran to Romy. They turned his limp body over and immediately did an emergency tracheotomy and began bagging him, all in the midst of cross fire. The soldiers remained calm and focused on one purpose...getting Romy out alive.
September 19, 2008 in Washington, D.C. is a day Romy and his family will never forget. Doctors explained that Romy was extremely lucky to be alive. He went on to say that the bullet was a direct hit to the C3 vertebrae and completely shattered it, and had to be extracted. This meant Romy was paralyzed from the shoulders down. The doctor ended by saying that Romy would never walk again. After the doctor left the room, Romy looked at Gaby, his wife, and said, "That doctor doesn't know me, does he? I will walk again. This is merely a detour on the journey." Romy dedicated himself to his therapy just as he had dedicated his career to being a soldier. He spent 18 months of intensive inpatient care before he was finally able to leave the hospital.
Many individuals would have merely accepted this as a "new way of life," but not Romy. He wanted to return to active service. In 2010 he petitioned the Surgeon General of the US Army for permission to try an experimental regenerative procedure. In May of 2011, Romy became the very first active duty service member to receive Olfactory Mucosa Autografts. In early 2015 Romy retired from the Army and together
with his wife are dedicated to helping other Vets through their center "Stay in Step".
