(Washington, D.C. ) - Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Clarence Page will be the Keynote Speaker at the Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday morning, July 18, at Vietnam Veterans of America’s 13th biennial National Convention at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Illinois. Some 700 delegates from VVA chapters across the country will join hundreds of other Vietnam veterans and guests for the event.

Clarence Page was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduating from Ohio University in 1969. He served as an Army journalist with the 212th Artillery Group at Ft. Lewis, Washington. After receiving his honorable discharge, he went to work as a reporter and assistant city editor for the Chicago Tribune. He has been a nationally syndicated columnist and member of the Tribune editorial board since 1984.

Page appears often as a guest panelist on The McLaughlin Group, is a regular contributor to PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and has hosted several PBS documentaries. A 1992 inductee into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, his awards include Pulitzer Prizes in 1972 (as a member of a team of reporters who wrote a series on voter fraud) and the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

“VVA is honored that Clarence Page will be giving the Keynote Address at the Convention’s Opening Ceremonies,” said VVA National President John Rowan. “He is one of the nation’s most distinguished journalists and commentators and we look forward to his speech to his fellow veterans of the Vietnam War era.”

The always-stirring Opening Ceremonies also will include performances by country music stars Big & Rich and Lee Greenwood, who will perform his classic “God Bless the U.S.A.”

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