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Mary McCormack on the PBS National Memorial Day Concert

The show must go on! The 31st National Memorial Day Concert will take place this year, but will look very different. Mary McCormack, who has appeared on the show four times now, explains what some of the notable changes are.

By: Heather Newgen

For the last three decades, PBS has beautifully honored American military heroes on their award-winning National Memorial Day Concert, and the tradition continues. While the event, which is attended by hundreds of thousands of people, is typically held on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building, this year it will be aired as a virtual concert. Longtime hosts Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna are returning, as well as Mary McCormack.

“This year they added a section honoring the people on the frontlines of the COVID crisis, so that’s pretty incredible. I think it’s going to be really moving. It’s always really moving, but I think this year it may be even more moving in a different way because it’s going on when all this is happening,” McCormack told The Voluntourist.

RELATED: How Special Forces Officer Romulo Camargo, paralyzed in combat, gives back to other veterans

The former West Wing star added, “My dad was a Marine, long before I was born, but you grow up with a sense of gratitude and reverence for what the militaries does and their families. This year I get to do a tribute to the Gold Star families, which is such an honor because they are also giving so much. We forget about how much they’re giving to all of us. It’s a real honor to be a part of it. In this climate in America, where everything is right now angry and dangerous and partisan and heated, this is a non-partisan, as it should be. I think because of that it’s really healing. It’s nice to feel something that we can all get behind together.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Trace Adkins on honoring veterans and performing at the National Memorial Day Concert

The 90-minute show will include performances by “Harriet” star Cynthia Erivo, Renée Fleming,  three-time Grammy nominee Trace Adkins, 12 -time Grammy Award winner CeCe Winans, Hamilton star Christopher Jackson and the National Symphony Orchestra.

In addition, A-listers like George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg and more will deliver pre-taped messages to the troops.

The National Memorial Day Concert will air on Sunday, May 24, at 8/7c on PBS.

How Special Forces Officer Romulo Camargo, paralyzed in combat, gives back to other veterans

Romulo Camargo proves a paralyzing bullet can’t stop him from living life and giving back to others.

By: Heather Newgen

Romulo “Romy” Camargo always knew he’d serve his country and at 19 he joined the military where he spent most of his time in the Special Operations community with the 75th Ranger Regiment and 7th Special Forces Group. On his third deployment in Afghanistan, the Chief Warrant Officer volunteered to help deliver humanitarian aid to a local village after his mission was canceled. A mishap took place when the bucket loader they were using to repair roads flipped. ‘We had to destroy the bucket loader so it would be inoperable so the insurgents wouldn’t take the parts from it. Once we destroyed the bucket loader we were returning to base and that’s when we were ambushed,” Camargo told The Voluntourist.

The Green Beret was hit in the back of his neck. “Chief is down. Chief is down,” is all I remember hearing from that moment,” Camargo said. His medic rushed to him and performed an emergency tracheotomy in the middle of crossfire, while the other soldiers fought back against the insurgents. His team stabilized Camargo and he was medevaced to Germany, but nobody expected him to live.

12 years later, the highly decorated officer is not only alive, but giving back to wounded veterans. Camargo is paralyzed from the shoulders down, but that isn’t stopping him from living life and serving others.

He believes he’s been given a second chance at life and takes the opportunity to share his blessing with others. He started the non-profit Stay in Step, which is dedicated to helping people with spinal cord injuries. The facility is uniquely designed to focus on mental and physical well-being and to accommodate patients families.

His wife Gaby, whom he met in Venezuela when they were 12-years-old, has been by his side through it all, and the two have relied on their faith to cope with the sacrifices and life changes, which have helped make their family that much stronger.

Camargo’s story will be featured on the National Memorial Day Concert this Sunday on PBS, and The Voluntourist had the chance to talk with the couple.

Romulo Camargo Romulo and Gaby Camargo
Photo by Romy Camargo

The Voluntourist: You were first honored at the National Memorial Day Concert in 2015. What was that experience like for you?

Romulo Camargo: I couldn’t believe it. It was very humbling and it was an honor for us to be honored there in 2015. My medic was there, who did the emergency tracheotomy and my other teammate who rolled me over and called the medics was also there as well.

The Voluntourist: It must have been such a nice surprise to hear PBS is telling your story again this year.

Romulo Camargo: Yeah. So they’ll be retelling my story again. And when they told me it was an honor again. It was a blessing to be able to be honored in a concert, as big as the PBS National Memorial Day Concert is. I’m just glad to have my story out there and to be able to show the world what we can do, when to take adversity and change it into a good thing.

RELATED: Gary Sinise on taking a break from Hollywood and advocating for American troops

The Voluntourist:  Is that what you want people to take away from your story?

The Voluntourist:  Yes, ma’am. It’s how you take that adversity and change it into a good story of hope and strength and honoring commitment.

The Voluntourist: I understand you wanted to join the military after watching your brothers graduate from Airborne School. What was so significant about that event for you?

Romulo Camargo: I always looked up to my brothers. I thought it would be a perfect moment, that I decided to join the military as well, probably in their footsteps or whatnot.

The Voluntourist: How old were you when you joined?

Romulo Camargo: I was 19.

The Voluntourist: And you did three separate tours in Afghanistan?

Romulo Camargo: Yes, I was traveling extensively through Central and South America at first and then we went to Afghanistan in 2005, 2007, and 2008

The Voluntourist: 2008 is when the incident took place, correct?

Romulo Camargo: Yes, ma’am, we’re ambushed on September 16, 2008. I received a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

The Voluntourist: How old were you at that time?

Romulo Camargo: 33.

The Voluntourist: Can you take me back to the day of the ambush and explain what happened, to the best of your knowledge?

Romulo Camargo: So, we were conducting humanitarian mission down in Zabul province, Afghanistan and while we were conducting the mission, we were ambushed and while I was directing fires, I received the gunshot wound to the back of the head, right behind the ear and it hit my C3 vertebrae and I was paralyzed from the shoulders down, and then my medic came and did an emergency tracheotomy and got me breathing again. My team members came, packaged me up, put me on a medevac bird. [I went] from the battlefield to Kandahar, Kandahar to Bagram, Bagram to Germany, Germany to Walter Reed. All in three days.

The Voluntourist: And Gaby, take me back to the day that you were told about what happened.

Gaby Camargo: I received a phone call on September 16th, around 11:30 a.m. I wasn’t at home at that time and it was one of his teammates. He wasn’t deployed with Romulo. He was in Fort Bragg. So basically he was the one in charge. He was the one that Romulo told if something happened to me, you will be in charge with telling Gaby everything. So I received a phone call around 11:30 a.m, it was him and he was asking me if I was at home. I told him, “No, I’m not at home because I was buying some supplies for my birthday.” My birthday is on September 19th and that was September 16th. So as soon as I received the phone call, I had this weird feeling that I had at that moment. So I told him, “Is everything okay?” And he told me, “Yes, everything’s okay. I have a package for you from Romulo. So, I need to see you.” And I told him, “I’ll be back in 20 minutes.” And that’s how I did it. So when I got home, I would say 10 minutes later, someone was knocking on the door. And when I went to open the door, it was him and two other military people wearing the uniform, and of course, I was in shock. So after a few minutes, that I was crying and all of that, they told me what happened to Romulo. They told me he was running his team, they were ambushed and he was shot in the back of his head. And I was asking them, “How is he doing? Is he alive?” And they told me that they didn’t know. The only thing that they told me is they’re doing their best and we will keep you posted with everything. So they stayed with me, I would say, 30 minutes and then they left. After they left, 25 minutes later, I received another phone call and they told me, “He’s stable. We don’t know his condition, but at least he’s stable. And they are transferring him from a local hospital to a bigger hospital in Afghanistan.” And that was on September 16th. And then of course, like he just said, he arrived here in the States three days later, on my birthday, September 19th. So, he was my best gift.

The Voluntourist: Gaby, I understand that you felt like this situation was part of a bigger plan and that you could turn this around to help others. Romy did you feel the same?

Romulo Camargo: Well, once I was stable, I started talking to all the other wounded warriors, helping them out, and just taking them through what I went through and sitting down with them and talking about how the recovery process would be and give them some motivation, being there for them. Being an advocate for all the other wounded warriors that I came in contact with.

The Voluntourist: Is that how you came about starting your organization?

Romulo Camargo: Well, Gaby and I started talking about that because the system didn’t have anything in place in Tampa that provided long term free implementation that we provide. So Gaby and I went off in that venture with a couple of mentors. We created Stay In Steps brain and spinal cord injury recovery.

Gaby Camargo: Heather, let me compliment what Romulo just told you. Number one, he has been more than 18 months as an inpatient at the VA hospital here in Tampa. When we were there, it’s not that I want to talk about us, but we were very, very proactive. Always looking for new procedures, always looking for new resources available for him, and of course, family members. So that was Romy and I for 18 months. So after Romulo was discharged, of course my husband, he worked in the special operations community his whole life. So my husband, he wanted to do more in the system. Unfortunately, they weren’t prepared for that. We were looking for more options and in 2011, we’d be teaching in a STEM cells procedure. Romulo became the first active duty in the nation receiving a STEM cell transplant. When we come back from Europe because the procedure was done in Europe, in Lisbon, Portugal, when we came back, we were looking for an aggressive rehabilitation. So back then, he was doing rehab at the VA Tampa, but we needed something more. And that’s why we decided to look for new options, new rehab centers around the Tampa Bay area, we didn’t find any. And we found one in Orlando. So we decided, let’s go to Orlando twice a week so you can conduct therapy in Orlando and at the same time, you will be doing therapy here at the VA. So basically he was doing therapy five days a week, intense in Orlando two days and three days here in Tampa. But we did it for two and a half years, but I would say after the first six months I told Romulo, we have to be realistic. This is a lifetime for you, we need to do something here in Tampa. There’s a gap in the health care system in Tampa, let’s do something about it. Tampa, we have one of the biggest base in the country, which is Macdill, we’re still fighting a war, Afghanistan, Iran, more wounded warriors are coming back home and the system is not prepared for them. So we decided to do something about it and it took us a year and a half to raise the funds and open the center. Our motivation, basically was to see that the health care system wasn’t offering them everything that they needed. My husband is a warrior and he will be a soldier forever. So basically the system, it was limiting him, what options can I do, you know? So that’s why we decided to do something about it.

The Voluntourist: Can you both talk about how your faith has played a part in this situation?

Gaby Camargo: Heather, that’s everything. Let’s put it like that. If I go back to the first day they told me this is what happened to Romulo. Well, you can imagine, when they told me that I was crying, but after a few minutes I told them, “Look, I believe in the Lord and you will see my husband will be my best gift.” And he was. So faith, for Romy and I, is everything. That’s our motivation to get up every morning knowing that something good is going to happen. That every time that we have our moments, that we feel down, that we have been seeing the same thing, the same picture for 11 years. But then you get up the next morning, you remember the scripture and everything that we have been learning through the years and that’s our motivation to keep moving forward. I’m a lawyer in my country. I’m an attorney in Venezuela. Romulo is the military, but the reality is that  your background, career doesn’t matter. When you live something like this, in reality like this one. Every day, that doesn’t matter. It’s all about faith and hope. That’s your gas. There’s no way that you can overcome any adversity in life if you don’t have God. That’s the way that I see it.

Romulo Camargo: I would say I wasn’t really a believer until I got shot that day. The Lord Jesus Christ brought me down to my knees. I started believing more and with Gaby we’ve put that in our lifestyle ever since I got shot. For me, it has has given me the strength to be able to have handled it for the last 12 years and being able to share with some of our clients that go to Stay in Step. So for me it’s really helpful.

The Voluntourist: Romy, what’s been the hardest part of all of this for you?

Romulo Camargo: The hardest part is just trying to see, just being there, trying to see movement and just keeping on, keep going  hundred percent towards my rehab. Being able to be here for my family, my children. Just being here and trying to keep doing physical therapy three to four times a week and just keep going, keep going that constant.

The Voluntourist: A lot of people would have given up. To be told that you’re going to be paralyzed for the rest of your life and things are going to be a lot different from now on. A lot of people would have given up, but what makes you keep going?

Romulo Camargo: You make it a lifestyle. And being a C3, which is one of the highest level of cervical injury that we’ll be able to be out and about without a ventilator and whatnot. I just have to keep going and keep pushing myself just to stay healthy and to keep the lifestyle that I’ve been living for the last 12 years. I’ve got to be here for my family, I have to be a husband, a father, a brother,  a teammate. So, that’s what keeps me going. And the Lord Jesus Christ keeps giving me that strength to keep going and doing what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years.

To see more of Camargo’s story, watch the 2020 National Memorial Day Concert Sunday, May 24 at 8/7c on PBS.

D-Day Survivor Ray Lambert recounts Omaha Beach horror and why he was apprehensive to share his story

For a long time, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert remained silent about fighting in World War II and the historic D-Day invasion where he single-handedly saved over a dozen men.  But the last few years, the 99-year-old former medic has been very candid about what took place during the war so the American soldiers who died won’t be forgotten.

By: Heather Newgen

By the time he was 23, Ray Lambert had fought in North Africa, where he earned the Silver Star after driving a jeep into enemy gunfire to get his troops out; he went to combat in Sicily, and in June of 1944 he joined roughly 73,000 Americans for what would be his third and final invasion: D-Day, the turning point of WWII that helped lead to the defeat of the Nazi forces in Europe.

Seventy-five years ago, Lambert, who was part of the First Division’s famed 16th Infantry Regiment, hit the cold, gray shores of Omaha Beach with the first wave of troops. His brother Bill served alongside him and the two Alabama natives made a pact to take care of each other’s families should something happen.  The brothers parted ways upon arrival in Normandy and with bullets flying towards their packed Higgins boat, Lambert jumped out and began pulling drowning injured soldiers to land.

The Staff Sergeant was hit but he didn’t stop.

“Something went through my right elbow and that kind of shattered my elbow and caused some bleeding. I kept working and didn’t pay much attention to that. I saw a guy hung up on barbed wire. I went in to get him off the barbed wire and had a difficult time. I got him loose and something hit me in the thigh, halfway between my hip and knee. It knocked a big hole [in my leg] almost to the bone and actually kind of knocked me down. I got up and put a tourniquet on just above the wound. I told one of my corporals to try to get more men over to the big rock so they could save them and treat them,” he told The Voluntourist.

But not even two serious injuries stopped the army medic. He continued on his mission.

“I was bleeding very badly and getting weaker, but I saw a guy’s arms up in the water. I realized he was in trouble and went there to get him. When I got to him his equipment was also hung up in the barbed wire and an underwater mine had been set off and he had some injuries. I got him with my right arm, the one that was shattered, and had that around him. I was working with my left hand and finally after going down twice in the water I got him out.”

He added, “As I turned to go back towards the beach, a Higgins boat came in and when he dropped his ramp it hit me in the back and pushed us both right to the bottom. It crushed the lower part of my back and I thought for sure we were both going to die. I said a prayer. I asked God to give me one more chance to save this person. For some reason unknown to any of us, that ramp rolled up and the boat moved to a different spot. My guess is the boat was in the wrong place where fire power was coming in. It was so heavy that they decided to move down the beach. I got the guy out and got him back up. By then I was in terrible shape. I was bleeding terribly bad so I passed out on the beach.”

A few hours later Lambert woke up on a landing ship and his brother Bill, who had also been shot, was next to him. Both went home.

The Voluntourist first talked with Mr. Lambert, a four time Purple Heart receipt, last year in Washington D.C. at the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS where he was celebrated for his countless acts of courage and bravery, something he’s very humble about. We recently had the chance to follow up and speak with him again.

The Voluntourist: Last year you were honored at the National Memorial Day Concert and this year your story will be told again on the show by Sam Elliot. What was it like to attend the event?

Ray Lambert: It was very touching to me to sit there and listen to the story and it brought back so many memories of my guys. Also I was very proud that I had been able to accomplish and live through those things that now it seems to be important to people and young people. I always have mixed feelings when listening to some of the things that I’ve done, things that have happened to me. But that was just a wonderful day to be there. Then later of course meeting people from Fox I talked to and you, that was a lot of fun also. I’m always happy to do what I can to bring back memories to other veterans. They’re all so important and it’s getting down to just a few of my era and generation.  I was in North Africa, Sicily and D-Day. From the 1st Division, I don’t think there’s over two of us left that was in all three invasions, so it’s always interesting to hear the younger people I talk to ask questions about those three invasions.

The Voluntourist:  I understand you were apprehensive to tell your story. Why?

Ray Lambert: There’s two reasons. One is, you don’t like to remember how people were torn apart and those kind of things, you just don’t like to talk about it for a long time.  I had no intentions of ever talking about it again, but when I realized they couldn’t do their own talking, their families never knew how things were really because their sons and daughters were killed. That’s when I thought it was a responsibility that I thought I owed to families, other families, that didn’t get their sons and daughters back. Then I started talking more about it and the more I talked about it, the better it makes me feel that those guys who died on the battlefield have some representation that were there also and can tell people how it was, how brave they were and how they just kept going day and night, never complaining and just doing their job.

The Voluntourist: Is that when you decided to write your book Every Man a Hero?

Ray Lambert: Yes, because today the word hero doesn’t seem to be as important as it was years ago. I know there are plenty of heroes out there today, but when soldiers lived the way they did in the woods like animals and faced death every single day, then kept moving forward and forward.  We knew we were going to lose 15 percent of the guys in every company. So you just go in trying to do your job and not think of getting killed. You just walk into the danger every minute of every day. I wanted people to know the story of those guys.

RELATED: How Sergeant Ray Lambert is Honoring his Fellow Soldiers 75 Years After D-Day

The Voluntourist: I understand people suggested the title of the book should be Ray Lambert a Hero, but you wouldn’t go for it.

Ray Lambert: Yes, when they wanted to do the book they were talking about Ray Lambert the hero and I said, “no, no way am I going to do that. My men were all heroes and they all did their job and faced the same danger.”  Some of us did a few things that others didn’t, but still every man that made that D-Day invasion was a hero in my opinion.

The Voluntourist: Absolutely! How often do you think of Normandy and the men you were with in battle?

Ray Lambert: Almost every day. Just a few minutes ago I was thinking about the guys and how they never lived to see their grandchildren and great grandchildren, or to have a home or married life. It will never leave me. There’s so many that I knew from 1940 through Africa and through Sicily. We’re all like a family and it gives me a lot of good feeling and satisfaction to think about all the guys we knew and had so many laughs with and so many sad moments too.

The Voluntourist: You arrived to Normandy in the front of a cramped Higgins boat where you were shot at the moment you hit the shore. Do you remember the ride there? What were you thinking, feeling?

Ray Lambert: I had been on two other invasions, so I knew what to expect, but going in the water was very rough and everyone got seasick.  Everyone was throwing up all over the place and the wind was blowing it back. If you weren’t seasick, you’d get sick from all the stuff going on. Some of the guys were very quiet. One guy was standing right behind me and he was saying some things from the Bible and I couldn’t understand him because the noise was really rough, but I know he was doing that. There was one guy trying to move around in the boat. It was very crowded. There was a lot of concern because we knew exactly what we were going to get into, but it was of course a lot worse than we thought. It was a time where your mind was pretty much tied to the job you were going to have to do.

The Voluntourist: How aware were you that winning the invasion was pivotal to winning the war?

Ray Lambert: We had been told that this was “do or die” as we used to say. If we didn’t make it, there was a good chance that all of our guys would be destroyed and that the war would probably be lost. That’s what General Eisenhower and the other guys were talking about. We had to do this and it was an awful responsibility to put on young guys.  We had guys that were 17, 18, 19-years-old. We knew we had to do our job.

The Voluntourist: You’ve seen so much tragic untimely death, what makes you keep going after everything you’ve experienced?

Ray Lambert: The enjoyment I get of doing something hopefully for someone else, and to make someone else smile or laugh. It makes me feel good. I’ll be 100-years-old November 26th, and I can’t do some of the things I did, but I still enjoy being with people and I still enjoy talking about my men and the fun that we had.  One of best friends was Howard [Buck] Shute. He was a captain. He and his wife and my wife were all close friends back in the forties. The only two people left out of that group now is [me and] Buck Shute’s wife Florence. She lives in New Jersey and she’s a year older than I am. I talked to her last week. She and I have conservations about the old days and things that went on. We all had no money and used to get cheese and crackers from the mess hall and have that for our evening meal sometimes. All those kind of wonderful things that happened to us when we were young and all together. That keeps me going. I just feel every time if I can call Florence and talk to her it’s going back to my oldest friend that I have still living. We just always laugh about things. It’s the energy that I get from other people and knowing that I may have an opportunity to do something for someone else–those are the things that keep me going.

To see more  of Lambert’s story, watch the 2020 National Memorial Day Concert Sunday, May 24 at 8/7c on PBS.