PMC Vice Chairman Gerry Byrne Receives U.S. Navy’s Prime Civilian Honor

PMC’s vice chairman and veteran Marine Gerry Byrne was honored Friday with the U.S. Navy’s prime civilian accolade, the Distinguished Public Service Award.

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro honored Byrne at PMC’s New York Metropolis workplaces — simply blocks away from the place Del Toro was raised in Hell’s Kitchen. Byrne served as a Marine officer in Vietnam in 1968-69, and was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal with Fight V.

The Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, which was established in 1951, is the very best tribute that the secretary of the Navy can bestow upon a civilian not employed by the Division of the Navy. Byrne was acknowledged for his dedication to supporting army and veteran communities by a number of initiatives and board memberships such because the United Companies Organizations and the Intrepid Museum, the Bob Woodruff Basis, the Fisher Home Basis and Metropolis Meals on Wheels. Byrne, who’s a Fordham College Army Corridor of Fame inductee and established the Marine Corps Birthday Ball with the actor and former Marine Harvey Keitel, emphasised the significance of integrity and management.

Byrne additionally spoke of his Bronx upbringing, and his time at Fordham Prep and Fordham College, having been topic to “eight years of Jesuits hammering into me what’s a vital core worth — integrity.” He stated that going from the Jesuits to the U.S. Marine Corps within the late Sixties “simply added a layer to this worth system that stayed with me.” Byrne famous how throughout a dinner with Jay Penske (present chief government officer of Penske Media Corp.), 20 years in the past about his imaginative and prescient to create this media firm, “our dialog was all about integrity and management,” Byrne stated. “That’s why I’ve to offer particular kudos to Jay, as a result of this firm that we’ve now, which has about 24 totally different manufacturers together with Dick Clark Productions, the Golden Globes, and South by Southwest…the worth system right here is all about integrity and ethics. These are distinctive phrases and property to search out within the setting that we reside in.”   

Byrne additionally acknowledged his spouse Liz and actress daughter Megan, who attended Friday’s ceremony, for his or her help. Megan is a part of the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Baby” manufacturing on Broadway. He additionally spoke of his son Gavin and daughter-in-law Chrystianne [DeAlmeida], a scientific psychologist, who are actually dwelling in Tokyo the place she has helped to create a psychological well being infrastructure on the Yakota Air Base, that was initially prompted by the necessity to assist relations and U.S. Air Drive troops there after eight airmen died in an Osprey crash off the coast of Japan in 2023. Byrne additionally spoke of his “sharp-as-a-tack” 93-year-old brother, who’s on one hundred pc veteran’s incapacity on the St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens and praised “these folks, who actually are devoted to creating a distinction.” He additionally spoke of the necessity to help and acknowledge the veteran inhabitants of an estimated 18 million and the neighborhood that helps it.

Byrne recalled two quotes which have stayed with him by the years. He described how a Marine Corps sergeant as soon as stated to him in Vietnam, whereas providing to mild his Marlboro cigarette with a Zippo lighter, “Have you ever ever seen this earlier than? It was inscribed with, ‘For many who have fought for it, freedom has a style the protected won’t ever know.’”

One other quote that stayed with him occurred throughout Byrne’s years working for the famend screenwriter and tv and movie producer Norman Lear. “After I was there, we did ‘Stand by Me,’ ‘The Princess Bride’ and ‘Fried Inexperienced Tomatoes,” stated Byrne, including that he and Lear had a particular affinity as a result of Lear having flown 52 fight missions as a door gunner on a B-17 in Europe. “There’s a sure vitality that occurs between veterans, significantly fight veterans. They don’t discuss specifics. They simply acknowledge one thing exists that’s distinctive.”

After asking Lear as soon as over lunch, “’How do you do what you do?’ as a result of he had created Folks for the American Manner, was on the board of 30 not-for-profits and held management positions in every single place,” Byrne stated, “He checked out me and stated, ‘Gerry, life will not be a rehearsal.’”  

PMC’s vice chairman stated he type of lives by these phrases immediately, and advised that others contemplate them. Noting that second that was being shared with Del Toro and all of the attendees at Friday’s ceremony wouldn’t occur once more, Byrne stated, “So simply take into consideration the alternatives that every one among it’s important to make a distinction within the easiest of how.”