Desert Storm veteran Branson receives 2020 Hoover Freedom Award
The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce and Hoover Veterans Committee honored retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ginger Branson as the recipient of the 2020 Hoover Freedom Award on July 16.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Pocopanni, chairman of the Hoover Veterans Committee, presented the award to Branson during a ceremony at the Pentagon Plaza at Aldridge Gardens. The award presentation was part of the chamber’s July meeting, which was held virtually via a Facebook Live broadcast due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Branson is a resident of Vestavia Hills but is commander of the Hoover-based Ryan Winslow American Legion Post 911. She joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1973 and served for 28 years, including two years of active duty in 1990 and 1991.
She spent nine years as a nurse (four as head nurse) for the 75th Field Hospital in Tuscaloosa, four years as a nurse with the 341st Medical Battalion in Dallas and five months as the charge nurse for the medical intensive care unit of the 251st Evacuation Hospital in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
She also was deployed on medical missions in Paraguay, Panama and El Salvador, usually in support of Special Forces.
Branson concluded her time with the Army Reserve as the head nurse of the intermediate care unit of the 75th Combat Support Hospital in Tuscaloosa from 1991 to 2001.
She also has 44 years of experience as a civilian nurse, working in home health, diabetes education, emergency room medicine, teaching, surgery, orthopedic rehabilitation and psychiatric nursing before retiring in 2013.
Pocopanni said Branson has been a tireless advocate for veterans, long-term supporter of patriotic ideals and role model for the community.
In addition to being commander of the Ryan Winslow American Legion Post 911, Branson also is commander for the American Legion’s 21st District, which covers Jefferson County.
She represents the American Legion on the Veterans Administration Volunteer Services Committee and has served as secretary of the greater Birmingham chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.
Branson also is a local director of the Wreaths Across America program, leading volunteer efforts to place more than 700 wreaths on veterans’ graves at Jefferson Memorial Gardens on John Hawkins Parkway in December. She also is on the support committee for the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo.
“She is a multi-tasker, to state the obvious,” Pocopanni said. “She doesn’t slow down. She’s a whirlwind. She’s always on the go, a take-charge person. … Her volunteer work knows no limits.”
Branson wrote a book detailing her military career titled “Bend My Dog Tags and Send Me Home,” which is available on Amazon.
In 2015, Branson was named the Military Officers Association of America Veteran of the Year, and in 2016, she received the Outstanding Veteran Volunteer Award from the Alabama Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the DAR Distinguished Citizen Medal from the group’s Old Chisolm Trail chapter in Dallas.
In 2019, she was awarded the Positive Maturity Volunteer Spirit Award, and she is scheduled to be inducted into the Alabama Senior Citizen Hall of Fame.
“Her professionalism both as a nurse and Army officer and steadfast desire to help our veterans are unmatched,” Pocopanni said.
Branson said receiving the Hoover Freedom Award is quite an honor because she knows some of the previous recipients and considers them to be among her heroes.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, she has spent four months home alone and discovered that there are many lonely people right now. Every afternoon, she tries to call one or two World War II, Korean War or Vietnam War veterans and do a “buddy check” to see how they are doing and simply listen to them. Because of their age and/or health complications, many of them are exponentially more likely to die of COVID-19 if they get infected with it, she said.
“They can’t go anywhere, not even to church, which is for a lot of them their lifeline,” Branson said. “For many, solitude has brought about loneliness, and loneliness for months on end is agony and can lead to hopelessness and despair."
Branson encouraged chamber members and others to look over their contact lists and make some calls. “Please do your part to help turn someone’s lonely day into a brighter one.”
PASSING THE TORCH
Chamber members also today heard from Jeremy Ward, development officer for the American Village in Montevallo.
He shared about the American Village’s mission of strengthening and renewing the foundations of American liberty and constitutional self-government by telling the stories of America’s struggle for independence. The lessons in those stories are still vitally relevant today and help young people and others become better citizens, he said.
“The principles of American liberty and self-government are not in our DNA,” Ward said. “They must be taught and passed on from generation to generation. How can we expect to remain a great nation — a nation of free men and women — without understanding the tremendous sacrifices that have been made by those who came before us? And how can we fulfill our roles as private citizens without a proper knowledge and deep appreciation for the charters of freedom which guarantee and protect our rights as Americans?”
Ward quoted author and historian David McCullough, who once stated that “a nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia.”
America is facing a crisis in which people don’t know American history and the lessons it can teach, Ward said.
“We are forgetting our own history at a frighteningly alarming pace,” he said.
He shared a quote from Tom Walker, the founder and president of American Village, who once said “Our young people cannot safeguard what they do not cherish, and they cannot cherish what they do not know.”