On October 20, at 1 p.m., the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Foundation will host a lecture and slide show, called “Helicopters at War: Vietnam to Iraq,” by helicopter pilot and Iraq War veteran, Lt. Col. Mark A. Preston, N.J. Army National Guard. This program will be held at the Vietnam Era Educational Center in Holmdel, N.J.

      Lt. Col. Preston, a native New Jerseyan and a Rutgers University graduate, is employed by the State of New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs as the Chief of the Accounts Management Bureau, Fiscal Division.  For more than 25 years, he has also served in the New Jersey Army National Guard. Preston enlisted as a private, but after advancing through service and additional training, he graduated with honors from the New Jersey National Guard Officer Candidate Program and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in 1986.  He was promoted to his current rank in 2005.  Preston serves as the Battalion Commander of the 1st Battalion, 150th Aviation Regiment (General Support), 42nd Infantry Division (Mechanized), New Jersey Army National Guard, located at Mercer County Airport in West Trenton.  He has more than 1,400 flight hours of rotary wing experience as an aviation officer in the TH-55, UH-1H “Huey”, OH-6A/C “Loach”, AH-1E/F “Cobra” and UH-60A/L "Black Hawk" helicopters. Preston has been deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Croatia, and from November 2004 to November 2005, he and his Battalion were deployed to Iraq as part of Task Force Liberty during Operation Iraqi Freedom III.  Using slides and video to help illustrate, Lt. Col. Preston will speak on the helicopter in the Vietnam War, on the evolution of the helicopter since Vietnam , and about his own tour of duty with helicopters in Iraq.

      Lecture attendees are asked to RSVP to (732) 335-0033.   A donation of $5 per person is suggested.  The Vietnam Era Educational Center is located adjacent to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial off the Garden State Parkway at exit 116.  The Memorial and Educational Center are maintained through a partnership between the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Foundation and the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.  The Educational Center is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.  Regular admission is free for veterans and active-duty military personnel.  Regular adult admission is $4; student and senior citizen admission is $2; and children under 10 are admitted free.