WHO LEADS VALOR TOURS GROUPS

	Karen Abel, Royal Canadian Air Force Associate Historian Karen started writing and researching the Aleutian campaign in 2012 in an effort to honor her grandfather, a WWll fighter pilot with the 111(F) Squadron, RCAF. What she discovered was a large-scale lack of awareness of the overall campaign from both an American and Canadian perspectives. Since then she has made it her mission to retrace her grandfather's footsteps through Alaska and along the way share the stories of those who served alongside him in the Aleutian Islands.
	Dean Armstrong is a Virginia Military Institute graduate and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army, serving in the reserves at the end of the Vietnam War. A retired Delta Airlines pilot, Dean also flew for Northwest/Delta for 22 years. He is a passioniate WWII buff and as a pilot has travelled to just about every WWII sight we travel to, from North Africa to Iwo Jima, and has also participated as a passenger on our tours.
	Colinne Bartel has lived in Germany for almost 20 years. Her work for a private equity investor contributed to the reconstruction of many telco networks in the former East Germany shortly after the Berlin Wall fell. Her passion is connecting the historical dots between theory and practice and getting people to think about history from different perspectives. Colinne holds a B.A. from UCLA, an M.A. from The Claremont Graduate School, and a dual MBA from The Peter F. Drucker School of Management and The EDHEC Business School in Nice, France. She is a licensed guide at both the Dachau and Flossenburg Concentration Camp Memorial Sites.
	Prof. Anderson Giles has deep family ties to WWII in the Pacific. His father, a 4th Division Marine, and his uncle, a 67th Seabee, served in major campaigns. Andy has done close to 30 years of documentary and research work in the Pacific. He has lead many battlefield tours, lectured on Pacific Theater cruises, presented at a number of notable commemorative seminars, written and directed 2 major documentary films, and has appeared in a number of other films. He has contributed to a number of books and archeological research publications and has been chosen to do WWII painting commissions.
	Bill Altaffer, is a travel writer, photographer and participant on many Valor Tours trips. Bill is a member of The Adventurers Club of L.A. and the "World's Most Traveled Man" for 2005-10. [Read more about Bill.]
	Col. John H. Dewing, Aus Ret., served one tour of duty with the 864th Engineer Battalion at Nha Trang (Vietnam) and one tour with the Americal Division at Chu Lai. He participated in Lam Son 719, the US supported RVN invasion of Laos and spent several months along the DMZ. Awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal and Combat Inf. Badge. John has participated in and escorted our "Return to Vietnam" tour two years in a row.
	Frank de Planta is a retired infantry Lieutenant Colonel from the British Army, specialises in the southern Italian battlefields of Salerno, Cassino and Anzio.
	Scott Freund has been studying World War II history since he received his first book in the third grade. World War II research and history has been his lifelong passion. Scott served in the US Army as a Military Police Officer and recently retired after 27 years working for the Sheriff’s Department in California. He has been a documentary film producer for over 20 years, with documentaries being featured in film festivals, museum special events, television, and his YouTube channel “SFR Productions”. He is currently a member of the All Airborne Battalion, which is a group that parachutes from World War II C-47s at events in the US and during the D-Day Normandy Anniversary events
	Michael Grams will be taking over for Mike Hanlon, guiding our established WW1 tours to Europe. Mr. Grams, an American citizen, was born in Verdun where his father was based; his mother worked as a French translator from St. Mihiel. He has lived and travelled extensively throughout France, and speaks French fluently. He returned to the U.S. in 1972. Mike and his wife are making plans to move back to France very soon. He has escorted many groups and individuals around France since retiring from the wine business.
	Bob Kozlowski, is a Financial Advisor in the Phoenix Arizona area with over 40 years experience. Originally from Chicago, he attended Arizona State University and has an BS and MBA. Bob is a Lifetime Member of the ASU Alumni Association. An avid history buff, he has been a war-strategy gamer since he was 11 years old. Bob has spent the last 20 years traveling throughout Europe. His living motto is "always in search of the truth."
	Steve Kwiecinski, whose father survived Bataan, Corregidor, and being a POW of the Japanese for 39 months, lived on Corregidor with his wife Marcia for six and a half years. His book HONOR, COURAGE, FAITH: A Corregidor Story, is available in paperback in the Philippines and as a Kindle eBook on Amazon. Steve and Marcia have hosted many group and private tours for Valor Tours.
	Jack Letscher , is a former U.S. Marine who has lived on Okinawa since 1986. He began his independent study of the Battle of Okinawa in 1999 and has been associated with Valor Tours as a guide since 2007. Jack enjoys the challenge of locating forgotten Okinawa battle sites, many altered unnoticeable during rapid modernization of the island.
	Martin Olutniks – originally from Manchester, England, has been a London-based Blue Badge guide for almost 20 years, working in English and French. He specializes in art, architechture and military tours. Having family members who participanted on both sides during WWII, he has a great interst in that conflict and regularly gives lectures at the Churchill War Rooms. He is an experienced tour manager as well as guide and enjoys a job where every day is different, even if you are going to the same place, there is always something that makes that day unique.
	John Shively is a retired physician who has studied the Pacific War for seventeen years. He is a world traveller, amateur historian, and author. He joined the Valor Tours family as a tourist in 2003 when he went on his first Ghost Soldier tour. Since then he has travelled with Valor Tours to nearly every island battlefield in the Pacific. In 2010 he began escorting tours to the Pacific. He regularly works alongside John Innes to Guadalcanal, but also has taken groups to Okinawa and Tarawa. He is the author of The Last Lieutenant (Iwo Jima) and Profiles in Survival (Philippines). His father-in-law, Malcolm Amos, was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. He met his wife, Blythe, in Manila on tour in 2006. When he is not studying the war or travelling, he Participants in triathlons all over the country.
	CDR Jack Wallace, US Navy is a retired Naval Aviator who flew P-3C Orion patrol/anti-submarine aircraft during the Cold War throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Currently he is an international, wide body Captain with Delta Air Lines based in New York (JFK). His late father was a career Naval Officer who earned a Navy Cross and Purple Heart aboard USS San Francisco (CA-38) at Guadalcanal in WWII. Jack is a prolific, WWII history reader and buff and as a pilot he has travelled to multiple Pacific and European sites and battlefields. He has given private tours of various historical locations, battlefields and sites. Jack is a past Valor Tours tour participant.

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