BURGESS HONORS VETERANS
While many of the NHRA POWERade teams are preparing for competition at this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Dragway in Bristol, Tenn., at least one team will put racing aside long enough to honor those heroes who have disregarded their personal safety for valor on the battlefield. Roger Burgess, co-owner of Gotham City Racing, has arranged for a private jet to fly the team’s drivers Melanie Troxel, Frank Hawley and Mike Ashley as well as Kenny Bernstein Racing’s Tommy Johnson Jr. from Bristol, Tenn. to Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday evening for the In the Company of Heroes dinner. This gala function is presented by The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.
Burgess feels this event is one the team can learn from and apply to their everyday actions.
Team owner chartering jet to send drivers to Congressional Medal of Honor function …
While many of the NHRA POWERade teams are preparing for competition at this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Dragway in Bristol, Tenn., at least one team will put racing aside long enough to honor those heroes who have disregarded their personal safety for valor on the battlefield.
Roger Burgess, co-owner of Gotham City Racing, has arranged for a private jet to fly the team’s drivers Melanie Troxel, Frank Hawley and Mike Ashley as well as Kenny Bernstein Racing’s Tommy Johnson Jr. from Bristol, Tenn. to Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday evening for the In the Company of Heroes dinner. This gala function is presented by The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.
Burgess feels this event is one the team can learn from and apply to their everyday actions.
“The concept is to honor true American heroes,” Burgess said. “We will have the opportunity to learn a bit more about them and the things they did and what made them perpetuate these values of sacrifice and service and loyalty.”
There are 105 surviving Medal of Honor recipients and Brian Williams, anchor of NBC nightly news and emcee of the dinner, will pay respect to 25 of them. Also receiving tributes will be former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and Kimberly Dozier, the CBS correspondent who was so badly wounded in Iraq on Memorial Day, 2006. Dozier has since written a book, Breathing the Fire.
Johnson, whose wife Melanie has worked with veterans and the POW-MIA program for the last two seasons, looks forward to attending the event.
“It is quite an honor to have an opportunity to attend this dinner,” said Johnson. “I’m looking forward to being in the company of some of our country’s real heroes.”
Burgess said attendance at this event was something that he feels will leave a lasting impression on the team.
“I wanted the people on our team to be there because the things these guys stand for, we want those qualities within our team,” Burgess explained. “I feel we have a lot of those qualities on our team but the environment is a lot different. Our team isn’t in combat and sacrificing their lives but it takes an awful lot of team work helping one another and that’s what the Medal of Honor folks are all about.”
IN-HOUSE MEDAL OF HONOR – Burgess doesn’t have to search far for a Medal of Honor example to present to his team.
As a member of the Gotham City Racing team, Cavaini works with the team’s outreach for veterans program as part of their POW-MIA/Vietnam Veterans mantra. Each Saturday at 10 AM at NHRA POWERade events, Cavaiani is assisted by team manager Angelo Angelico and veteran drag racing journalist Bobby Bennett in welcoming veterans to the race track and thanking them for their service.
He will attend as many as sixteen NHRA national events this year in support of the program.
"We have the MIA car and anything I can do to support the veterans and the families of the missing, I just do whatever I can to fill in,” Cavaiani said. "I'll be interacting with the veterans of all wars, it's important they know we all appreciate their service.”
Cavaiani served with Burgess (also a Vietnam War veteran) in the U.S. Military and over the years they remained in communication. For Burgess, Cavaiani’s appointment to the program had nothing to do with friendship and everything to do with qualification.
“Just having Jon at the gatherings brings something special for the veterans to relate to,” Burgess said. “He’s great in working with them.”
Cavaiani expects to reach the vets afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] and "provide a place to just sit down and talk." PTSD is described as an anxiety disorder that can occur after someone who has been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is described as something horrible and scary that the individual sees or that happened to them. During this type of event, the person’s life or others' lives are in danger. A person with PTSD may relive this experience over and over in their mind and feel the same fear as when the incident took place.
Many of the veterans attending the gatherings on Saturday mornings have been diagnosed with PTSD. The experience of attending the drag races and interacting with fellow veterans serves as a healing experience.
"I think the program is vitally important," Cavaiani said. "I think this program should extend into other sports, not just drag racing. I think there needs to be a greater veteran awareness through this country.”
Cavaiani is thankful for the Congressional Medal of Honor award bestowed upon him but feels his actions were that of a soldier. The situation presented itself, and as he puts it, “I reacted.”
He wants to be known as much more than just a Congressional Medal of Honor award recipient.
"If that's my sole contribution to America then that's a sad commentary,” Cavaiani said. “I've done a lot more things since then that I'm very proud of. Working with the veterans and those currently deployed is what it's all about. It’s about supporting all of those brave men and women serving our country domestic and abroad."
