This year's dinner, "Shoot for the Stars," was originally going to feature Dr. Eugene Trinh, the first Vietnamese-American astronaut as the keynote speaker, but -- ironically perhaps -- Dr. Trinh was picked to serve on a jury in a complex criminal trial, and so will not be able to join in person. Instead, we are extremely excited to welcome Charles F. Bolden, Jr., the head of NASA, as our keynote speaker. Charles Bolden, Jr. has had a long and distinguished career in the Marine Corps. He has traveled four times aboard a space shuttle, deploying the Hubble Space Telescope and participating in the first joint US-Russian shuttle mission. He has been the CEO of a consulting company which focused among other things on motivational speaking. Bolden, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a naval aviator flying more than 100 combat missions, including in North and South Vietnam between 1972 and 1973, and he continues to be engaged in Vietnam even today. He is in the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. NASA General Counsel, Michael Wholley, will also join us. He has also flown combat missions in Vietnam and holds degrees from Harvard, the University of Virginia Law School, and an L.L.M. degree from George Washington University.
We are excited to welcome a wonderful and diverse crowd of in-house attorneys, law firm partners, business owners, solo practitioners, government attorneys, law students, and VABA-DC supporters and look forward to meeting or reconnecting with you.
Until then,
Alexander T.H. Nguyen
President, VABA-DC
