In keeping with its long tradition, the Japanese American Veterans Association, along with the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF), will hold its annual Veterans Day Program on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at the National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Army Colonel Danielle Ngo, senior fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), will be the distinguished speaker for the Veterans Day program.
Ngo is an active-duty Army officer with over 30 years of service. She was born in Vietnam and was evacuated by the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War with her mother and sister. She has previously served as the executive officer for the U.S. Army Inspector General, Pentagon, Washington, D.C., and executive officer for the U.S. Army Pacific Commander at Fort Shafter, Hawaii.
Ngo is notable as the highest-ranking active duty AAPI female to command an operational engineer brigade. She served in leadership assignments throughout the U.S. and overseas, including deployments to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
During her commands, her units provided humanitarian assistance for two of the largest and most destructive wildfires in Colorado history, the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest Wildfires, and later, construction projects throughout the Pacific from Hawaii to the Republic of Korea. She participated in the U.S.-China Disaster Management Exchange in Kunming while in command.
When not serving operationally, she has held positions as a Joint Chiefs of Staff intern, the chief of engineer maneuver support organizations, and the military assistant to the chairman of the NATO Military Committee.
Ngo is a distinguished graduate in the master’s in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), holds a master’s in theater studies from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and a master’s degree in public policy (MPP) from Georgetown University. She is certified as a project management professional (PMP).
In addition to the keynote speaker, remarks will provided by Gerald Yamada, JAVA president; Howard High, JAVA vice president; and Doug Ichiuji, National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) board member and treasurer.
The ceremony will start at 2 p.m. EST / 11 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. HST rain or shine. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the program will be live-streamed via Facebook. Viewers can go to the JAVA website at http://JAVA-US.org and watch from JAVA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit-Organization/Japanese-American-Veterans-Association-201704733192222/. In light of COVID-19 challenges, members, friends, and interested persons are encouraged to watch the program online via Facebook rather than attending in person.
JAVA’s Veterans Day Program has been selected by the Veterans Day National Committee, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as one of the “Veterans Day observances throughout the country that represents a fitting tribute to America’s heroes.”