Tribute to County Veterans & Military Members

Colonel Mark N. Brown

Mark Brown served in the Maryland Army National Guard (ARNG), retiring after 31 years as a Colonel. After his enlistment, he went on to earn his officer commission via the Officer Candidate School (OCS). He served in a variety of senior officer positions ranging from Infantry Platoon Leader to Brigade Commander. He spent many years as a full time ARNG soldier where he served as the Deputy Comptroller at the United States Property and Fiscal Office (USP&FO). He was deployed in support of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom from early 2006 to late 2007. Colonel Brown is a graduate of the Army War College and a two-time recipient of the prestigious Legion of Merit.

Colonel Brown, a native of Easton, Maryland, has resided in Elkridge with his wife and three children since 2001.

Dr. Xavier Bruce (Dr. X)

Dr. Bruce is a decorated military veteran and accomplished professional with over 20 years of exemplary leadership and problem-solving experience in dynamic, high-stakes environments. He is a 2000 graduate of the Air Force Academy and retired from Fort Detrick as a Lieutenant Colonel. As the Assistant Vice President of Veterans Programs at the University of Maryland Global Campus, he champions veteran student success through critical support and advocacy. Dr. X is also the Founder and CEO of Uplift Resilience Academy, a service-disabled veteran-owned business specializing in resilience building, self-leadership, and interaction management. Recognized with a 2023 Governor of Maryland Citation, Dr. X exemplifies honor, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to empowering others through education and service.

Dr. Bruce currently serves on the Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families and resides in Columbia.

Beverly Byron

Beverly Byron was commissioned to the Army Reserve Nurse Corps in 1977 and served for 29 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Her first job after earning a B.S.N in Nursing was caring for Vietnam veterans in a VA hospital in Boston, many of whom were paraplegic or quadriplegic, and around her age. She recalls learning a lot about neurology by caring for these Heroes.

Beverly moved to Columbia, Maryland in 1977 and lived there until 2010, when she moved to Ellicott City.  

Michael Cao

Michael Cao served over 12 years in the US Army as the non-commissioned officer of the S1, where he managed key personnel operations, ensuring the smooth execution of administrative processes vital to mission success. Through his service, he gained valuable experience in managing diverse teams, solving complex challenges, and thriving under pressure. These attributes have become hallmarks of his career and the foundation for his continued growth and leadership beyond military. Michael lived in Columbia and attended Howard Community College.

Colonel Roger Chang

Roger Chang is retired Army Colonel with 30 years active duty and Reserve service.   

Cold War - Answering the President’s Key Intelligence Question KIQ#1: “The mission success warranted immediate transfer of the recorded ultraviolet sensitive recording paper to Defense Special Missile and Space Center (DEFSMAQ). The Joint Unit received the Air Force outstanding unit awards and key individuals received the Joint Service Commendation Medal for helping to answer KIQ #1.”

After over forty years, the National Security Agency (NSA) officially declassified this statement regarding the President of the United States Key Intelligence Question (KIQ #1). The answer resounded “yes” loud and clear. The answer helped keep the Cold War cold. The answer helped to prevent “the end of the world as we know it.” The answer compelled Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to negotiate the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II, to limit strategic nuclear delivery vehicles. The wrong answer might have initiated a 17-minute exchange of 7,500 unstoppable thermonuclear warheads around the globe. That was 17 minutes of Chang's Active Duty. Answering KIQ #1 rose high as our top national mission when he served as a United States Army officer in 1973.

The excerpt above is from Chang’s memoir, “Helping Keep the Cold War Cold.” The mission success warranted his selection for the Army in 1975 for assignment at the National Security Agency. He created and maintained the 97th Army Reserve Command (ARCOM) Briefing during the Desert Storm Middle East War as PEA for the Commanding General 97th ARCOM at Fort Meade, MD.

Chang and his family have been residents of Howard County since 1975. He is the founding Commander of American Legion Columbia Post 300 in 2003.

Dr. Chrystal Daughery

Dr. Chrystal Daughtery served in Vietnam in the United States Air Force and retired as a Senior Master Sergeant after 22 years. She grew up in Howard County.  

George Duncan

George Duncan served as a U.S. Army Sergeant from January 1976 to September 1982 during the Cold War. 
George is an Atomic Veteran who was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal for his participation in the Enewetak Clean up of radioactive contamination left in the Marshall Islands as a result of Hydrogen bomb testing. He has lived in Howard County since 1994.

Allan Field

Allan Field, originally from Towson, MD, was a United States Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class (E-5) with 6 years of active duty caring for wounded Marines and sailors from the Vietnam War. His duty stations included Naval Hospitals in Annapolis and two years spent on Guam. Interestingly, he never boarded a Navy ship, but the Navy did teach him how to sail! His work experience in the Navy prepared him for a 55-year healthcare career that included executive management and Board of Directors consulting. The Vietnam-era GI Bill supported his undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and administration.

Allan moved to Howard County in 1985 and later met his wife in 1993 through their running group. He is a lifetime member of the Baltimore Road Runners Club where he was their fourth president. He is also a member of the Howard County Striders, ultimately finishing 41 marathons and one 50-mile race to celebrate his 50th birthday. Allan also enjoys cruising on the Chesapeake Bay in his 40 ft sailboat. He currently resides in Columbia.

First Sergeant Lorinzo Foxworth

Lorinzo Foxworth served in the US Army for 20 years, from 1975-1995. From 1978-79, he performed border patrol duties as a Calvary Scout, guarding democratic West Germany against the Soviet Eastern Bloc Countries. He later served in human resources and Army Recruiting fields, retiring as a First Sergeant (E-8). Foxworth graduated from the US Army Sergeants Majors Academy and has a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix.

From 1996 to 2015, he ran a small business - Synectics Trainers - providing organizational and strategic leadership management best practices to corporations and educational institutions with clients such as DOD, Ford Motor Company, US Army EEO, Baltimore City Schools, US DOL, the Veterans Employment and Training School, and the Army Recruiting Command.

Foxworth currently serves as an adjunct instructor for University of Maryland Global Campus and University of Phoenix, while providing leadership coaching and strategic development as an owner of theleaderdoc.com. He also worked for the VA Administration Office of Talent Management 2019-2023.

Foxworth also serves on the Maryland Veterans Commission, Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families, is an elected member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee and on the Executive Board of the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET) in Baltimore City. He is also a member of the National American Legion Association and has been a resident of Howard County since 2012, relocating from Baltimore City.

James Hartley

James Hartley retired from the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman after 25 years of service. He enlisted a year before Pearl Harbor and served on the Destroyer USS Converse in WWII, during the Korean War and during Operation Deep Freeze.  He was last stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His wife also worked for years as a Red Cross Volunteer at the same hospital and was very active in the Ladies VFW Woman's Auxiliary.

Ronald Hilliard

Ronald Hilliard served in the US Navy as a Dental Technician Petty Officer 3rd Class for six years during the Vietnam War. He has been a Howard County resident for 53 years.

Matthew Hursey

Matthew Hursey served in the U.S. Army for 5 years, from 2002-2007 as an Airborne Infantryman during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He did his Basic and Airborne Training at Fort Benning, GA with his first duty station at Fort Richardson Alaska, Blackfoot Co. 1/501st Infantry Regiment. He deployed to FOB Salerno Afghanistan in the Khost-Gardez Mountains from October 2003 to August 2004. Matthew’s second duty station was Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Alpha Company 2/502nd of the 101st Airborne, out of COP Stryker, Iraq in the Sunni triangle of death from September 2005 to September 2006. He was wounded from an IED, receiving a Purple Heart. Other awards include Combat Infantryman Badge, 2 Army Commendation Medals and Army Achievement Medal.

Matthew has worked for Howard County for more than 10 years, first with DPW, as a consultant with RKK engineering from 2015-2018, then as a full-time employee in 2018 with Right of Way Utility Permits and later Construction Inspection Division. He recently moved to Rec and Parks in the Bureau of Capital Projects.

Everett Johnson

Everett Johnson served for two years in the 920th Air Base Security Battalion, a member of the 13th Air Force during WWII. He defended the Inner Perimeter on Piva Airfield, Bougainville Island with the 920th which stood up well under shell fire on March 8, 1944, and thereafter.
Everett moved to Howard County in 1973 after retiring from the Baltimore City Public School System. He arrived in Maryland in 1955 to integrate the faculty of the former Southern High School. Prior to that, he was an industrial arts teacher at Prairie View University in Texas, with a stint at West Virginia State College as an instructor. 
Prior to his death at the age of 95, Everett was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, MD. He was a wonderful husband, father, son, and friend to all. He was also an avid traveler, gardener, photographer and swimmer.

Colonel J. Gregory Jolissaint

Greg Jolissaint served 28 active and eight reserve years in the US Army and retired as a Colonel. He began his military career as an Infantry Lieutenant, then returned to school after four years of active duty and graduated as a medical doctor. After completing an Army Family Medicine Residency, he spent over two decades serving in medical leadership positions for both operational Army units, including clinics, hospitals and medical centers. Jolissaint provided medical support to 1st Armored Division Soldiers during Operation Desert Storm; commanded a combined US and British medical task force in Kosovo; and had the privilege of commanding all Army medical forces assigned to the 8th US Army and the US Forces Korea from 2006-2008.

Jolissaint spent a successful post-military career as a defense contractor which included overseas deployments in support of US and NATO medical forces during OIF (Iraq) and OEF (Afghanistan). He later transitioned to successive executive leadership positions in the Veterans Health Administration prior to serving as an executive leader in a large non-profit health care system. He is now an independent health care, high reliability, and health care leadership SME, consultant, and coach who also enjoys serving as a Veterans mental health advocate.

Jolissaint moved to Howard County after retiring from the US Army in 2011. From 2016 to present, he has served on the Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families and is an active member of American Legion Post 156 and VFW Post 7472. He is also active in his parish, the Church of the Resurrection, and the Resurrection Knights of Columbus in Ellicott City.

Linda Land

Linda Land served as a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force for 8 years during the Gulf War. She currently resides in Ellicott City.

Dewon Lawrence

Dewon Lawrence enlisted in the United States Army in 1996 and served twenty-two years in various locations around the world, to include the United States, Germany, Albania, Kosovo, Iraq, Honduras, Afghanistan, South Korea, and Belgium. He retired as an Army First Sergeant in 2018 after serving during the Global War on Terrorism. His post-federal service career includes political campaigns and state service focusing on process improvement, resource management, and outcome delivery.

He is a graduate of various Department of Defense leadership and skill specialty schools and the University of Baltimore, Magna Cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Policy, Politics and International Affairs.

Dewon’s military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and numerous campaign medals.

Dewon currently lives in Western Howard County.

Charles Reed

Charles Reed enlisted in the U.S. Army Infantry in 2004 and served six years. He was stationed in South Korea for one year before deploying to Iraq with B Co 2/12 Infantry out of Fort Carson, Colorado, from October 2006 to January 2008. While stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Falcon, Charles performed daily patrolling combat missions outside the wire in al-Dora, Baghdad, earning his Combat Infantry Badge on his very first mission. Notably, he participated in the Second Battle of Haifa Street in Baghdad— a historic operation —and his company was later featured in Dead Rabbits, a book by Scott Flanigan. Charles left active duty in June 2008 as a sergeant and continued to serve his country in the Maryland National Guard until February 2010.

Originally from North Laurel, Charles attended Atholton High School and Howard Community College. He now resides in Ellicott City with his wife and two daughters, continuing his commitment to service as a Howard County Police Officer.

Paul Rivers

Paul Rivers served four years active and seven years Reserve duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1980-1984 and 1985-1992, respectively. As a young corporal in March 1983, he was deployed to Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a peace-keeping mission directed by then-President Ronald Reagan. He was there for seven months until wounded, at which point he was medically evacuated to an Army hospital in Germany, as one of the few survivors of the Marine barrack bombing on October 23.

On that fateful day, 220 marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers were killed, marking the bombing the deadliest, single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II and the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Armed Forces since the first day of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War.

Rivers spent nearly 30 days in the hospital and was awarded the Purple Heart by Vice President George H. Bush. Rivers and his family have lived in Howard County for 20 years having settled here during his 27 years as a U.S. Marshall. He was active in Wilde Lake HS PTSA, where his sons attended high school, and continues to serve on many boards in Howard County to include the Commission for Veterans and Military Families, Board of Elections, Police Accountability Board, and Veterans Mental Health Council. He helped create the NAMI Connections Veteran Support Group in 2020, where he serves as a veteran peer facilitator.

Steven Rudis

Steve Rudis served in the United States Air Force for four years during the Gulf War. He earned his medical degree in emergency medicine and interned in the ER at Scott Air Force Base for 1 year.  He then served 3 years at Mather AFB.

Steven moved to Howard County in 1996 for a job at Northwest Hospital once he completed his residency from ORMC Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Arthur Selnick

Arthur Selnick served as a US Army Sergeant from 1942-1945 during WWII. He was a combat veteran of the European Theater, having served in France and Germany. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and to liberate Pilsen, Czechoslovakia in May 1945. He was awarded the "Chevalier of the Legion of Honor" by the Ambassador of France in 2010 for his contributions during the liberation of France in WWII.

Arthur founded a wholesale business as a consumer electronics and appliance distributor in 1962, based in Elkridge since the late 1970s. The Selnick Corp HQ Building in Elkridge still stands proudly today. Arthur passed away in 2016, however three of his sons who worked in the business still reside in Howard County.

Joseph Schissler 

Joseph Schissler served as a Second Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy for four years and four months during the Vietnam War. He served as a fire control technician on three ships that took him to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. He was on the USS Lawrence when it took part in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Joseph has lived in Howard County since 1974.

Paul Turlington

Following his high school graduation, Paul Turlington enlisted as a Private in the USAR in his hometown of Gainesville, FL, as a finance pay specialist. He later attended ROTC at the University of Florida and was commissioned as 2LT in April 1983. Upon graduation in 1985, Turlington went on to complete Officer Basic Training at Fort Sill, OK, and was assigned to Fort Campell, KY, for three years before being promoted to Captain and rebranched to Transportation.

Completing officer advance training at Fort Eustis, VA, in 1989, he was assigned to Fort Polk, LA, as the Movement Control Officer, G4 for the 5th Infantry Division from 1990 to 1991 during Operation Just Cause in Panama and Gulf War Operation Desert Shield/Storm. After Desert Storm, he was released from active duty and continued his military service in the USAR until his discharge in 2003.

Turlington currently serves as the National Society Sons of the American Revolution State Chair for the Veterans Committee and ROTC, as well as the National SAR Representative to VA Maryland Health. He is Past President, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (Howard County area) and a life member of Ellicott City’s American Legion Post 156, VFW Post 7472 and DAV.  He volunteers each week at the VA Baltimore Medical Hospital as a driver for veterans in need of transportation from their home to care.

After 23 years with UPS, Turlington retired June 2023. He has been a resident of Howard County since 1999, having lived in North Laurel and Ellicott City. Paul was an initial member of the UPS Veterans Business Resource Group and was appointed as community representative to Chris Van Hollen in 2006 and Ben Cardin in 2010.

Juan Valdez

Juan Valdez honorably served in the United States Marine Corps as a mortarman from January 2004 to December 2013. His dedication to duty took him on multiple deployments, beginning with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in 2005 alongside 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. In 2006, he deployed to Iraq, where he demonstrated extraordinary courage and resilience after being wounded by an enemy sniper. Undeterred, he remained on active duty, returning to Iraq in 2009 with Regimental Combat Team 8. His commitment continued with a reenlistment and subsequent deployment to Sangin, Afghanistan in 2011 with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, where he contributed to critical operations in one of the conflicts most challenging environments. His service is marked by bravery, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to his fellow Marines and his country.

Valdez graduated from the University of California in San Diego with a degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Law. After working in Congress for a year, where he worked to advocate for active-duty military and veterans, Valdez currently works for the Wounded Warrior Project, where he serves as its grassroots and constituent affairs coordinator. He currently resides in Columbia, Maryland and is a proud member of the American Legion Post 300.