Sons of the Flag, a Dallas-based organization whose mission is to revolutionize burn care and quality of life for veterans, first responders and families, holds its sixth annual Stars & Stripes Luncheon, presented by the Clay Cooley Auto Group, on Monday, November 4, 2019, at Dallas Country Club at 12:00 noon. The luncheon is preceded on Sunday, November 3rd by a special screening of Black Hawk Dawn for event sponsors, after which Matt Eversmann answers questions about the events portrayed in the film.
Libby and David Hunt and Lissie and Wayne McCullough are luncheon co-chairs; Nancy and Herbert Hunt are luncheon honorary chairs. Pete Delkus, WFAA-TV chief meteorologist, is the luncheon emcee.
"The Stars & Stripes Luncheon is our most important event each year as we work to support veterans, first responders and families with advanced burn treatment and education," said Ryan "Birdman" Parrott, former Navy SEAL and founder of Sons of the Flag. "We are thrilled to have former Army Ranger Matt Eversmann with us this year to share about the dramatic raid memorialized in Black Hawk Down, one of the most powerful military films of the past 20 years. His inspiring story of survival will motivate us as we continue our work on behalf of burn survivors, who fight their own survival battles everyday of their lives.”
On October 3, 1993, Eversmann was placed in charge of a group of Army Rangers to lead a daytime raid in Mogadishu, Somalia against enemy militia. Eversmann experienced the horrors of war when he and his fellow soldiers were trapped in a hostile district of Mogadishu and marked for death by an angry mob. For his actions on the battlefield, Eversmann was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device. Eversmann returned from Somalia committed to teaching the next generation of warriors. During his remaining time in uniform, he worked at the Army War College, taught at The Johns Hopkins University and deployed to Iraq, where he lived with the Iraqi Army for 15 months during The Surge. He remained on active duty until May of 2008, when he retired after 20 years of service. Eversmann recently filmed a documentary, Send Me, which highlights the tremendous advances in battlefield medicine since his days on the dusty streets of Mogadishu.
Each year there are more than 486,000 burn survivors in the U.S., with approximately one civilian burn victim every minute. Seventy-three percent of burns happen in the home and 24 percent of burn injuries are to children under the age of 15. Despite the hundreds of thousands of burn survivors, there are fewer than 200 burn surgeons across the U.S. The Stars & Stripes Luncheon raises money to support burn survivors with critical treatment and supplies, and to increase the number of trained burn surgeons.
Check-in for the luncheon opens at 11:30 AM; the program begins at 12:00 PM. Individual tickets are $250, and event sponsorships, which include the November 3rd red carpet movie event, begin at 6:00 p.m. More information about tickets and sponsorships can be found at https://sonsoftheflag.regfox.com/2019-stars-and-stripes-luncheon-and-red-carpet-event or by contacting Sherry Whidby at sherry@sonsoftheflag.org or 469-930-6694.
Event Sponsors as of 10/25/19
Luncheon Presenting Sponsor
Cooley Auto Group (Lisa and Clay Cooley)
Brevet Medal Sponsors
Corrigan-Goddard Foundation
The Nancy & Herbert Hunt Foundation
Benchmark Bank/Private Wealth Management
Encap Investments
Lee Financial Group
Steve Silverman
Trammell Crow
Service Cross Sponsors
Louise and Guy Griffeth
Sandie and Steve Woods
Silver Star Sponsors
Pryor Blackwell/Bandera Ventures
Kristi and Wallace D. Hall, Jr.
Libby and David Hunt
JoAnne and Eddy Moore
Jenny and Adam Saphier
The Valo Group
Gary Wojtaszek
Sue and Jim Woods
Bronze Star Sponsors
Jennifer and Noble Nash
Stephen Rogers
Bruce E. White
Purple Heart
Lewis Brown
Suzanne Laidlaw
Paige Locke
Scott O’Grady
Mary Lou O’Grady
Robb Parks
Billie Leigh Rippey
Janice Siedel
About Sons of the Flag | www.sonsoftheflag.org
Sons of the Flag revolutionizes burn care and quality of life for veterans, first responders and families. We believe the future of burn care resides in research and development. Our vision is to accelerate the process of testing leading technologies and push them into circulation for immediate use by burn survivors across the nation.
Learn more about the organization and follow its news and upcoming events on Twitter @sonsoftheflag and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SonsOfTheFlag.