Richard Willich

Photo Caption: General Ron Christmas, Richard Willich and General Walter Boomer pose in front of a photo taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. The famous photo depicts five Marines and one U.S. Navy Corpsman raising the American flag on the summit of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. Willich pays the Associated Press a yearly licensing fee to display this historic, original, photograph at the MDI Holdings headquarters in Ponte Vedra, Florida.

President of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, General G. R. (Ron) Christmas and Chairman of the Board, General Walter E. Boomer, visited Richard Willich (all USMC-Retired) at the MDI offices on Monday, January 18.

Fellow Vietnam Veterans, the three Marines have earned seventeen medals of valor between them including one Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, two Distinguished Service Medals, three Combat Action Medals, three Presidential Unit Citations, two Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medals w/V for Valor, and two Purple Hearts.

“Richard is a true patriot and a dedicated Marine. He has done a great deal to support our mission and I am here to personally thank him,” declared Boomer. The Foundation’s mission is to preserve the historic legacy of the U.S. Marine Corps and support the National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center at Quantico, Virginia, which opened on November 10, 2006 and has since had more than 1.6 million visitors.

“I’m honored to host two such distinguished guests and to be involved with plans going forward for the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation,” said Willich, who served for thirty years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and is now CEO of MDI Holdings, Inc., a Ponte Vedra-based healthcare management, technology and software company.

For more information on the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, please visit the site at www.marineheritage.org.