Avon VFW Names Veteran of the Year

The Avon Gildo T. Consolini VFW Post 3272 has named Senior Vice Commander James Hutton as Veteran of the Year.

The award is presented annual to a veteran of the post who shows outstanding leadership, commitment and service to the post. It is named in honor f veteran Mike Anstey who served as post quartermaster for 19 years.

Hutton was discharged from active duty in November 1967 with the rank of captain.

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Senior Vice Commander Hutton joined the Post seven years ago and has risen to several leadership positions including POW/MIA Chairman reporting monthly to the Post about recoveries of missing veterans and holding recognition events as requested keeping the memory of those missing or lost alive. He is the Post’s Budget Chairman working on plans and schedules for income and expenses of various services and programs they support. He has put considerable time in to amending the Post’s Bylaws and assisted with the four month Vietnam War commemoration at the Avon Free Public Library in 2013, including the drafting of a Proclamation for approval by the Avon Town Council regarding the commemoration of the Vietnam War.

“Jim’s work on behalf of all Veterans and especially those of the Avon Post has been outstanding. This was an award that was truly deserved and I would like to personally thank Jim for all the hard work he has done,” stated Lee Wilson, Commander Avon VFW Post 3272, at the award ceremony.

James Hutton served on active duty in the United States Air Force from 1963 through 1967. He was an aircraft maintenance officer, and served in several positions in both the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). He was assigned to the 100th Bomb Wing, SAC, for two years during the height of the Cold War, first as a flight line maintenance officer and subsequently job control officer. Jim then spent a year at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, as the officer in charge of the Aircraft Ground Equipment (AGE) of the 377th Field Maintenance Squadron, 7th Air Force, PACAF. In his last year in the Air Force Jim was assigned to the maintenance management branch at 15th Air Force Headquarters, SAC, at March Air Force Base, near Riverside, CA. Jim possesses the Air Force Commendation, Vietnam Service, and Vietnam Campaign medals.

Jim was discharged from active duty in November 1967 with the rank of Captain. He subsequently returned to his civilian job at the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Rochester, New York. He was a mechanical engineer there for almost 30 years, working primarily on commercial nuclear power plants. Jim and his wife, Ann, moved to Connecticut following his retirement to be near their daughters and grandchildren. They lived in Avon for almost nine years before relocating to Hamden, CT fall of 2014.