American Valor Quarterly Issue 6 - Spring/Summer 2009 | Page 3

News from the American Veterans Center
Feller Honored by Washington Nationals

Profiles in Valor

Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals helped commemorate Memorial Day by
inviting Hall of Fame pitcher
and World War II veteran Bob
Feller to throw out the first
pitch prior to their game on
Sunday, May 24. Feller, who
served on the battleship USS
Alabama during the war, enlisted in the Navy the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was the first
Major League player to join the military after the start of the war.

Recently, the American Veterans Center launched its
newest radio program, Profiles in Valor. Airing as a
segment on its weekly series Veterans Chronicles, Profiles
in Valor spotlights the story of a decorated service
member from today’s military. It is hosted by Tim
Holbert, and seeks to do what so many other media
outlets have not – tell the stories of today’s heroes
who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Profiles in Valor can be heard during Veterans Chronicles
on one of its 40 affiliate stations nationwide or online
by visiting www.americanveteranscenter.org.

Feller was invited by the American Veterans Center to serve as Honorary
Marshal for World War II in the National Memorial Day Parade (see page
5). As would be expected from one of the greatest pitchers of all time,
Feller’s first pitch was a strike, right down the middle.

2009 Andrew J. Goodpaster Prize & Lecture
At a ceremony on March 12, 2009 held at Washington, DC’s Army & Navy Club, the American Veterans
Center presented the second annual Andrew J. Goodpaster Prize to Lt. General Dave. R. Palmer, former
Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
The Goodpaster Prize was inaugurated last year in an effort to honor the work of “soldier-scholars” who
undertake groundbreaking work in military scholarship. The prize seeks to honor the legacy of General
Andrew J. Goodpaster, himself one of America’s great “soldier-scholars” and an early supporter of the
American Veterans Center and the WWII Veterans Committee. Goodpaster was a decorated hero of
WWII, having received the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart, before going on to serve as
a war planner for General Marshall. He became a close advisor to Dwight Eisenhower during his presidency, and was later Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and Superintendent of West Point. He
was beloved by those who served under him, and universally respected for his decency and integrity.
Lt. General Dave Palmer
General Goodpaster passed away in 2005 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
delivers the second annual
Goodpaster Lecture.

The recipient of the 2009 Goodpaster Prize, Lt. General Dave R. Palmer, followed in General Goodpaster’s footsteps as Superintendent of West Point. He is a two-tour veteran of Vietnam, and has gone
on to a distinguished career as an author and historian, specializing in the early American army. Among his books is the recently
published and acclaimed George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots. As part of the Goodpaster Prize ceremonies,
General Palmer drew on his own research to deliver a lecture on character; the man who had it – Washington – rose to become
our nation’s greatest hero while the man who lacked it – Arnold – became its greatest villain.

Trimble Scholarships Awarded

American Veterans Center photos

The American Veterans Center is proud to announce the newest recipients of the James
Trimble III Scholarship: Marie Morrow and Bryan San Jose. The Trimble Scholarship is the
Center’s premier annual scholarship, in the amount of $2,000, awarded to two high school
members of the Young Marines program, is designed to recognize superior achievement in
and out of the classroom and to help further their college careers.
Named in honor of James Trimble, III, the scholarship is presented annually at the American
Veterans Center’s conference. Trimble was a baseball phenom who declined an offer to pitch
for the Washington Senators when he joined the Marine Corps during World War II. He
served with the 3rd Marine Division in the Pacific, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. While on a mission early on the morning of
February 28, 1945 on Iwo, Trimble was killed, his promising career ending before it began.
Pictured above with Morrow and San Jose are AVC president James C. Roberts (second from right) with Donald Mates and James
White, two of Trimble’s platoon mates. Mates was seriously wounded in the attack on the foxhole he shared with Trimble, and
was eventually saved due to the courage of White, who led an effort to rescue him and repel the Japanese attack.

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