Richard Camacho. Photo by BB Rivas / El Concilio Family Services
Editor’s note: Part of a continuing series of stories profiling the award-winners of El Concilio Family Services 2015 Latino Leadership Awards. The awards gala will be held on Saturday, June 6 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center. Click here or call 805-486-9777 for more information.
Amigos805 staff reports
Richard Camacho, born and raised in Santa Monica, is president of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County Inc. His grandfather was born in the State of Chihuahua and his grandmother was born in Torreon, Coahulla. Both of their families migrated to El Paso, Texas, because of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). They met and married in El Paso and then moved to Santa Monica where they raised eight children.
Camacho was drafted by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966 and volunteered to go to Vietnam in 1967. He earned a Purple Heart after being wounded by a booby trap grenade. Upon completing his service, he returned to California, moved to Anaheim and then to Moorpark. He and his wife, Janice, were married in 1999 and reside in Camarillo.
In 1985, he was among the founders of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County (VVVC). He started coordinating his efforts in helping veterans with Rep. Julia Brownley, (D-Ventura), the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health. Their efforts paid off when President Obama signed the Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice Accountability and Transparency Act, which will expand the Oxnard Veterans Clinic by 1,200 square feet and provide better long-term benefits and services for those who served.
He also played a significant roll in raising $10,000 to bring the “Moving Wall,” the half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., to Ventura County in 1985, 1989, 1991, 1994 and 2010.
He said about what his military service meant to him: “The value of life and the freedom that we have here in the United States that other countries do not have. The pride and fulfilled feeling that I served my country when l was called and didn’t run to Canada.”
The 26th annual Latino Leadership Awards will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 6 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard. Tickets are $200 each or $1,500 for a table of eight (8).
Click here to RSVP for the awards gala. For more information on El Concilio’s programs and services, visit www.elconciliofs.org or call 805-486-9777 ext. 228.