|












|
|
Annual Awards & Recognition Banquet
|
The
Heroes of Denton County Annual Awards & Recognition Banquet is held in Mid-September. |
|
Corporate sponsors purchase tables of ten and, generously,
"give back" six to eight of those seats so that each Law
Enforcement Officer and Firefighter from Denton
County may attend the event
at no cost to them. It is an
evening when citizens, dignitaries and comrades gather to recognize, and
celebrate, those true “Heroes of Denton County” who stand watch
over us every hour of every day of every year.
|
|
The 7th Annual 2008
Heroes of Denton County
Awards & Recognition Banquet
was
held September 11th, Patriot's Day, in the
ballroom of
The
Speedway Club at Texas Motor
Speedway
We
Gratefully Acknowledge
Red
Oak Gas
For Their Endorsement, & Sponsorship, of
Our
2008
Keynote Speaker,
Petty Officer
First Class Marcus Luttrell,
Former United States Navy SEAL, Recipient of
The United States Navy Cross for Valor
&
New York Times Bestselling Author of,
 |
|
|
|

|
|

|
| Petty Officer First Class Marcus
Luttrell was born in Huntsville, Texas in 1975. A graduate of
BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL [Sea Air Land]) Class 228, he was the only survivor of the fateful events of
June 28, 2005 in Afghanistan. Luttrell and three teammates from
SEAL Team TEN were assigned to a reconnaissance mission, operation
RED WING, in the Hindu-Kush mountain region of Afghanistan. Their
objective was to gather intelligence on Taliban movement in the
area. Luttrell’s team was eventually discovered and outnumbered
by over 200 Taliban fighters. Petty Officer Luttrell was the only
to survive enemy contact. In the rescue mission that ensued, 16
Special Forces personnel, including 8 SEALs, died when their
helicopter was shot down by Taliban fighters. It was the largest
single-day loss of life in the SEALs’ history. |
 |
|
In 2006, Petty Officer Luttrell was awarded
the Navy Cross for combat heroism. His full story is documented in
his heroic account of the operation, entitled: Lone Survivor.
Marcus’s twin brother, Morgan Luttrell, is also a SEAL, still on
active duty
|
2007
Recognition Banquet Sponsors & Event Contributors
|
Event
Sponsors |
|
Aaron Rents
Coffey, Stout & Peace LLP
Denton Area Teachers Credit Union
Denton Record Chronicle
Morgan Stanley
United Community Bank
WFAA Channel 8
|
|
Table
Sponsors & Event Contributors |
|
Aaron Rents
BizSource Marketing
Coffey, Stout & Peace LLP
The Hon. Michael Burgess
Denton Area Teachers Credit Union
Denton Record Chronicle
Morgan Stanley
The Hon. Jane Nelson
Point Bank
Point Independent Mortgage
United Community Bank
|
Bank of the West
The Hon. Myra Crownover
The Hon. Mary Denny
DENCO Area 9.1.1.
Denton County Sheriff Benny Parkey
City of Lewisville
Lewisville Morning Rotary
Miller Brewing of Denton
Motorola
The Hon. Chris Harris
The Hon. Tan Parker
Peterbilt Motors
Town of Flower Mound
Wen-Den |
|
Ford Country of Lewisville
The Hon. Kenny Marchant |
2007
Keynote Speaker, Danny Coulson
Former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Criminal Investigative Division & Commander of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team
|
Danny O. Coulson is Former Commander of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue
Team (HRT). In 1991 Mr. Coulson was named Deputy Assistant Director of the
FBI's Criminal Investigative Division where he oversaw all FBI
international and domestic investigations, violent crimes, civil rights and special inquiries for the White House.
In 1994, he headed the investigation of the Murrah Building Bombing in Oklahoma
City and coordinated the rescue and evidence recovery efforts,
resulting in the arrest of Timothy McVeigh and the capture of his accomplices.
Mr.
Coulson is co-author of "No
Heroes", an anthology of major criminal and terrorism investigations and the development of the Bureau’s HRT. |

Courtesy AEI Speakers Bureau
http://www.aeispeakers.com/speakerbio.php?SpeakerID=641
|
2006
Keynote Speaker, Army Lt. Colonel Brian Birdwell (Ret.)
|
United
States Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian Birdwell is a survivor of the terrorists' attacks on September 11, 2001. After hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 collided into the Pentagon, Birdwell was thrown to the ground and engulfed in flames. Of the burns that consumed 60 percent of his body, nearly half were third degree, resulting in the need for 30+ operations. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian D. Birdwell is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and a 1984 graduate of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Graduating as the Distinguished Military Student through the Army ROTC, he continued his service in the United States Army at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. After subsequently serving in South Korea for 18 months, Birdwell returned to the United States. |

|
|
|
United
States Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian D. Birdwell
http://www.facethefire.org/
|
2005
Keynote Speaker, FBI Special Agent Guadalupe Gonzalez
|
Federal Bureau of Investigation Dallas Field Office Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Area Guadalupe Gonzalez attended the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1977 he joined the Marine Corps where he attended Officer Candidates
School and later served as platoon commander and a Company Executive Officer.
In 1996 he was designated the Associate Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Office of the FBI, in charge of Organized Crime, Drugs and Violent
Crimes and in 1988 was designated Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Office of the FBI.
In 2002,
Special Agent Gonzalez was appointed as SAC Dallas and in January 2004 assumed the Chairmanship of the North Texas HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area). |

FBI Dallas Field Office Special Agent in Charge Guadalupe Gonzalez
|
|
|
|
2004
Keynote Speaker, Marine Major Jason Frei (Ret.)
| United
States Marine
Major Jason Frei,
commanding officer Headquarters Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine
Regiment, lost his right hand, and most of his forearm, in Operation Iraqi
Freedom. The battalion was the first artillery unit to
leave Camp
Pendleton
on
a ship bound for Kuwait
on
Jan. 17, 2003
and fired some of the first shots of
the war, thus paving the
way for the 1st Marine Division's advance into Iraq. Major Frei, a 10 year career Marine and graduate of the
United States Naval Academy, was
awarded the Purple Heart for
wounds he received during this action. Major Frei was wounded when a
rocket-propelled grenade struck his side of a hard-back humvee. |
 |
|
|
Major
Frei sits with the humvee door that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade
in
An Nasiriya, Iraq, on March 25, 2004.
|
2003
Keynote Speaker, NYFD Battalion Chief, John Salka
|
Chief
John Salka is a 24-year veteran of the New
York City Fire Department and currently holds the rank of Battalion
Chief. He is the commanding
officer of the 18th Battalion in the Bronx.
His tenure as an officer in the department has included instructing
at the Probationary
Firefighters School, the Captains’
Management Program and the Battalion Chiefs’ Command Course. Chief Salka has been decorated for bravery many times
throughout his 20-plus years of service in the FDNY. Chief Salka served as a commandant as part of the Incident Command Team at
the World
Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and in the weeks
and months that followed. He is
a contributing editor for “Firehouse
Magazine” and has been published in “Fire
Engineering”, and other industry publications. He is the author of
"First
In Last Out, Leadership Lessons From The New York Fire Department".
|

Battalion Chief,
NYFD
Chief
John Salka
|
|