Military Service
Noriega joined the United States Army in 1979 in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis. He became an officer in the Texas Army National Guard, and served in the Afghanistan War that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On his return from Afghanistan, Mayor Bill White requested that Noriega command the evacuee shelter operation at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston, where he oversaw thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Noriega's awards include: the Combat Infantryman Badge; Senior Parachutist Badge; Meritorious Service Medal; Army Commendation Medal; Army Achievement Medal; Afghanistan Campaign Medal; and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.
Read more about this topic: Rick Noriega
Famous quotes containing the words military and/or service:
“Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“We could not help being struck by the seeming, though innocent, indifference of Nature to these men’s necessities, while elsewhere she was equally serving others. Like a true benefactress, the secret of her service is unchangeableness. Thus is the busiest merchant, though within sight of his Lowell, put to pilgrim’s shifts, and soon comes to staff and scrip and scallop-shell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)