Villagers for Veterans is preparing to host its 6th Annual Orchid Gala – with a special goal of funding an all-women Villages Honor Flight next year.
The event will be held April 19 at 6 p.m. at the Savannah Center. Tickets are $50 per person and tables of eight are available. Music will be provided by Hollywood & The Tropix and there will be a basket raffle, 505/50 raffle and cash bar. Click HERE to purchase tickets or make a donation.
Phyllis Wilson, a retired U.S. Army chief warrant officer, will be the guest speaker at the event. She currently serves as president of the Military Veterans Memorial.
Wilson served in a variety of roles during her 37-year Army and Army Reserve career, including more than seven years at U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base near downtown Tampa. During that time, she was a senior intelligence analyst supporting Information Operations focused on the War on Terrorism. She also deployed to Iraq in support of a highly specialized Joint Special Operations Task Force.
Wilson started her Army career as a private and retired as a chief warrant officer five. She was the 5th Command chief warrant officer for the Army Reserve, which has more than 205,000 soldiers.
Wilson holds a master’s degree in management from Webster University and bachelor’s degrees in nursing and liberal arts. She is licensed as an RN in Florida and Virginia, has attended the Defense Language Institute for German and Spanish and has completed all levels of Army Warrant Officer Professional Military Education. In 2009, she completed the graduate level Program for Advanced Security Studies at the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany.
In March 2017, Wilson was inducted into the Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C. She serves as a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and in July 2018 became the first Army warrant officer selected as a member of the Association of the United States Army’s Council of Trustees.
Wilson is the president of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation Inc. It is located at Arlington National Cemetery and is the only major national memorial honoring all women who have defended our country from the Revolutionary War to today. Visit www.womensmemorial.org to learn more.
Villagers for Veterans recently teamed up with the Tri-County Women Veterans to raise money for next year’s all-female Villages Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. The groups worked together to host a Feb. 22 concert featuring Roy Michaels performing “Music of Our Time” at the Mulberry Grove Recreation Center.
