Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Adm. Paul F. Zukunft jumped at the chance to return to Corpus Christi.
Zukunft is Commandant of the Coast Guard, and was once stationed in Corpus Christi. He returned to the place where he met his wife for the dedication of Sector Corpus Christi's new building.
Valent Hall, a nearly 170,000-square-foot building, was dedicated to the late area Coast Guard Chief Boatswain's Mate Pablo Valent. It houses personnel and operations from Hangar 41 at Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi and Tower II in downtown Corpus Christi.
The building's hangar also houses the Coast Guard's aircraft and vessels and can withstand up to a Category 3 hurricane, Zunkunft said.
"This building will be here probably at least half a century, if not longer," Zukunft said. "It provides a great aviation platform for us to operate. Not just in the Coastal Bend, but we range across the entire Gulf of Mexico from here as well."
Valent's great nephew, Adolfo Garza, a middle school principal at Incarnate Word Academy, attended the dedication and told the crowd of Coast Guard members, law enforcement officers and city and government officials about the legacy of Valent and his family.
Valent, a Corpus Christi native, was highly decorated in the Coast Guard in the early 1900s and spent most of his career at the Brazos Coast Guard Station. He became the first Hispanic-American to command a boat station in 1935. He was also recipient of the Coast Guard's Silver Lifesaving Medal for the rescue of an eight-man crew off Cape Horn, a schooner that capsized during a hurricane in 1919.
Adm. Paul F. Zukunft jumped at the chance to return to Corpus Christi.
Zukunft is Commandant of the Coast Guard, and was once stationed in Corpus Christi. He returned to the place where he met his wife for the dedication of Sector Corpus Christi's new building.
Valent Hall, a nearly 170,000-square-foot building, was dedicated to the late area Coast Guard Chief Boatswain's Mate Pablo Valent. It houses personnel and operations from Hangar 41 at Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi and Tower II in downtown Corpus Christi.
The building's hangar also houses the Coast Guard's aircraft and vessels and can withstand up to a Category 3 hurricane, Zunkunft said.
"This building will be here probably at least half a century, if not longer," Zukunft said. "It provides a great aviation platform for us to operate. Not just in the Coastal Bend, but we range across the entire Gulf of Mexico from here as well."
Valent's great nephew, Adolfo Garza, a middle school principal at Incarnate Word Academy, attended the dedication and told the crowd of Coast Guard members, law enforcement officers and city and government officials about the legacy of Valent and his family.
Valent, a Corpus Christi native, was highly decorated in the Coast Guard in the early 1900s and spent most of his career at the Brazos Coast Guard Station. He became the first Hispanic-American to command a boat station in 1935. He was also recipient of the Coast Guard's Silver Lifesaving Medal for the rescue of an eight-man crew off Cape Horn, a schooner that capsized during a hurricane in 1919.
"Our family is blessed and honored with the naming of this building after my great uncle. We're also blessed he will have a cutter named after his honor which will be out in the sea pretty soon a couple years from now," Garza said. "(The building) is a reflection of the work that he did. ... He was a risk-taker, he was responsible and he served his country well."
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1 comment:
In San Benito sanbene all schools have gringo names but Freddy Fender has a water tank named after him.
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