“This scholarship is an absolute honor. To have seen so many mentors of mine receive the same scholarship before me, amplifies the honor of it. I am excited to honor Thomas Hudner and the Brian LaViolette Foundation through my pursuits in the future.”
William Voelker, 2020 Thomas Hudner Scholarship of Honor
Lt Col Koehler, Cadet Lt Col William Voelker and Col Stephen Kohler
William attended Pulaksi High School in Wisconsin and will be studying Aerospace Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. He received this year’s Thomas Hudner Scholarship of Honor during a social distance presentation last week with the leaders of the Fox Valley Composite Squadron Civil Air Patrol who help administrate the award.
Thomas J. Hudner
As a fighter pilot in the Korean War, Thomas Hudner routinely completed his missions by air. But in a dramatic rescue attempt of a fellow pilot, Hudner executed a wheels-up landing in enemy territory and found himself battling the elements on the ground. The snow and cold of December 1950 in North Korea found Hudner thinking not of himself or the enemy, but of one fellow Navy pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown, the Navy’s first African American aviator.
President Truman awarded Thomas Hudner the Congressional Medal of Honor on April 13, 1951 for his courageous actions.
The Thomas Hudner Scholarship of Honor is made possible by David Konrath, a United States Air Force Veteran.
