Bill Text: VA HJR219 | 2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Commending Lee William Horton.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-03-06 - Bill text as passed House and Senate (HJ219ER) [HJR219 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2024-HJR219-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, Lee William Horton, a resident of Georges Tavern in Goochland County, has devoted his life to selfless service and supporting others in a variety of active duty military, corporate, and volunteer roles; and
WHEREAS, a native of Galveston, Texas, Lee William Horton enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1964 and completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and follow-on specialty advanced meteorological and radar training at Chanute Air Force Base in Champagne, Illinois, commencing a distinguished military career spanning more than 20 years, on several continents, which culminated in his retirement as a service-disabled veteran with the rank of senior master sergeant; and
WHEREAS, while serving in the Republic of Vietnam, Lee William Horton worked with United States Army Special Forces A-Teams to install motion sensors along the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, deep within hostile enemy territory, and served with the 10th Weather Squadron, providing real-time meteorological data to mission planners and aircraft commanders; and
WHEREAS, over the balance of his military career, Lee William Horton deployed worldwide, to duty stations as varied as Tahnsunhut Air Force Base in Thailand, Yokota Air Base in Japan, Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, Forbes Air Force Base in Kansas, and Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, among others; and
WHEREAS, as an accomplished technical expert in meteorology, radar propagation fundamentals, and sensor technology, Lee William Horton served as part of the military and civilian research team at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, which developed the Doppler radar technology that has revolutionized the field of severe weather forecasting; and
WHEREAS, while stationed at Forbes Air Force Base in Kansas, Lee William Horton served as part of a team which surveyed and created the first comprehensive navigational charts of the Amazon rainforest; and
WHEREAS, in recognition of his consummate professionalism and consistently superior service in a variety of difficult, demanding, and dangerous duties worldwide, Lee William Horton was awarded, among other citations, three Air Force Commendation Medals and a Meritorious Service Medal; and
WHEREAS, commencing in 1965, and over the course of the next 58 years, in addition to his primary military duties and corporate duties in the private sector, Lee William Horton provided telephone patch services, the only means available at that time for military service members deployed worldwide to communicate with their families, as a volunteer operator within the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) until his retirement in 2023; and
WHEREAS, Lee William Horton served in a variety of volunteer leadership roles within MARS, including Virginia director (2010–2013), Region 3 ARMY MARS executive officer (2013–2019), and one of only 18 members nationwide of the National Support Network, ARMY MARS (2019–2023), in which capacity he provided leadership and direction to the Military Auxiliary Radio System mission to provide worldwide, reliable contingency communications interoperability to U.S. Department of Defense, civil defense, state and local governments, and national command authority units and agencies; and
WHEREAS, Lee William Horton has embodied the ideals of fidelity, obedience, and zeal throughout a lifetime of selfless service to the Commonwealth and the nation; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Lee William Horton on the occasion of his retirement; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Lee William Horton as an expression of the General Assembly's appreciation and admiration for his distinguished service to the Commonwealth and the nation.
