Presentation Date: October 28, 2018
Phil Gioia, Major, US Army
Phil grew up as an ‘Army Brat’ living in the US, Japan, and Italy before beginning high school.
On graduation from Virginia Military Institute in 1967, he was commissioned a Regular Army officer. Among other duties, his ten years of active service included two Infantry combat command assignments in Vietnam. He served as a combat Infantryman, Ranger, Pathfinder, and Master Parachutist.
He was wounded in action twice and was awarded several decorations for leadership in action. In 1972, he was personally awarded the Soldiers’ Medal by General William Westmoreland for rescuing a woman trapped in a burning car in Washington, DC.
Phil holds Masters’ degrees in:
-- Foreign Service from Georgetown University
-- Business Administration from Stanford University.
His career in investment banking, venture capital, and technology has spanned thirty years.
Phil:
-- is a writer and lecturer on topics of military history
-- has been published in various military history periodicals
-- appears in the Ken Burns-produced PBS documentary series ‘The Vietnam War’-- has appeared as a television commentator on military history and technology on the History Channel and the Military Channel.
He is also:
-- a director of the National World War II Memorial in Washington DC
-- an advisor on military history to the Presidio Trust which manages the historic Presidio of San Francisco.
Phil has served as both Councilman and Mayor of his home town of Corte Madera in Marin County, California.