Another Local Vet To Be Inducted Into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame

Lt. Colonel Floyd Houston To Be Honored

Lt. Col. Floyd Houston speaks at the ECHS 2018 Veterans Day ceremony.

Darren Doyle, story and photo:
Lt. Colonel Floyd Houston, U.S. Marine Corps Retired, an Edmonson County resident, is to be inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame (KVHOF).

The Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame selected twenty nine Kentucky military veterans for induction into the Hall of Fame later this year. Chosen for their post-military community service, inductees served in various military conflicts including the Korean War, Somalia, Vietnam and The Global War on Terror. For the first time in the organization's history, the class contains no World War II veterans.

KVHOF will honor the nominees at three events, all held at Embassy Suites/UK Coldstream in Lexington. Continuing tradition, the class will be introduced August 8th in a program featuring Team FastraxTM Professional Skydiving Team. The Grand Gala Dinner September 8th is an evening of military fellowship and patriotic music, spotlighting each inductee's military service. Their community service will be highlighted in the formal induction ceremony held the morning of September 9th. All events are open to the public.

Lt. Col. Houston, who served in Somalia, has tallied an impressive resume over the years that includes where he:

• was in a unique unit (2nd Force Reconnaissance Company)
• helped protect President Bush on an operation in Columbia 
• led a successful company sized raid on a Presidential Compound in Mogadishu 
• established a multi-million dollar Rewards For Justice reward on the now late 1983 Beirut barracks Bomber, Imad Mughniyah
• was medically retired due to injuries in 1999 and worked at HQMC as a civilian
• commanded VFW Post in Virginia leading it to All State honors
• authored a book about his VFW Post in Virginia: PILLARS OF THE POST (88 veteran biographies with profits assigned to a local veterans scholarship)
• coached a junior rifle team in Virginia for 11 years, coaching them to two open US National Rifle Championships in 2003 (beating the fabled US Army Marksmanship Unit and all the kids got scholarships)
• retired to Kentucky in 2015
• commanded local VFW Post here, earning All State and All American honors
• helped with the Hall of Heroes Project
• helps with VFW veteran funerals
• volunteers as a School Resource Officer
• is working on a second book, a history of the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company from the end of Vietnam until they were transferred into Special Operations Command in 2006 to become Marine Raiders (nonprofit)

Lt. Col. Houston in center. (photo: F. Houston)

"Hearing that I was to be inducted into KVHOF was a completely unexpected honor," said Houston.

He is currently the Junior Vice Commander of Brownsville VFW Post 6937 (both All State and All American) and helps with veteran funerals on top of volunteering as a school resource officer.

An official Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame plaque bearing inductee names will join earlier class plaques permanently displayed in the Frankfort, Kentucky Capitol building, in the first-floor hall near the Secretary of State's office. The names will also be added to regional KVHOF monuments placed around Kentucky. To date, KVHOF has honored over 250 veterans from 53 Kentucky counties, covering multiple conflicts and eras since World War I, representing the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

Brownsville resident and local veteran Mike Stoyonovich, Army First SGT. Ret., was also inducted in the the Kentucky Veteran Hall of Fame last year.