Heroes Linked Honors Qantas Airways with Distinguished Service Award
On September 30, we presented Qantas Airways with our Distinguished Service Award, recognizing nearly 15 years of partnership and the airline's commitment to hiring those who have served.
Board Chair Bob Jerome presented the award at Qantas Airways' maintenance and engineering facility at Los Angeles International Airport, the only hangar in North America large enough to fully enclose an Airbus A380. Qantas Airways Executive Vice President, Americas, Ash Howell accepted the award on the airline's behalf. Bob was joined by Vice Board Chair Pete Seitz, Board members Ginger Perkins and Larry Schnadig, and Executive Director James Colbert.
The presentation was a highlight of an annual meeting for all Qantas Airways personnel in the Americas. More than 100 employees gathered in the hangar, and several hundred more in facilities across the Americas watched the live video stream.
In his remarks, Bob described how Qantas Airways' steady support has helped us grow the Heroes Network, bring Medal of Honor recipients to audiences through our Medal of Honor Program, and launch our newest program, Gold Star Rising. He also spoke directly to the veterans working across the company, from the hangar floor to its offices.
“To everyone who has welcomed a veteran onto your team, mentored them, and helped them find their footing: you’re serving too.”
We're grateful to Qantas Airways for standing with us year after year, and to the team at LAX for welcoming us into their hangar.
[Bob's full remarks below]
Heroes Linked Board Chair Bob Jerome (center) with Qantas Airways Executive Vice President, Americas, Ash Howell (left), and Vice President for Sales, Americas, David Thomas (right)
Presentation of the Distinguished Service Award to Qantas Airways, Remarks Delivered by Board Chair Bob Jerome
[As prepared for delivery · September 30, 2026 · Qantas Maintenance and Engineering Facility, Los Angeles International Airport]
Good morning,
My name is Bob Jerome, and I have the privilege of serving as the Chairman of the Board of Heroes Linked. I want to thank Ash Howell and the Qantas Airways leadership team for giving us time on today's agenda.
It is my great honor to present the Heroes Linked Distinguished Service Award to Qantas Airways. My fellow Board Members and I, as well as our Executive Director, are here to say thank you, and to say it properly.
For nearly a decade and a half, Qantas Airways has stood with Heroes Linked. That consistency is what lets us plan, grow, and keep our promises to the people we serve.
Every year, about 200,000 men and women leave the U.S. military. They led teams under pressure and kept complex equipment running in conditions most of us can't imagine. Then they enter a civilian job market that often doesn't know how to use them.
That's why we built the Heroes Network. Today, it connects more than 80,000 veterans, service members, military spouses, Gold Star family members, and supporters. Last year, it grew by 45 percent. On an average day, it hosts nearly 4,000 job listings from veteran-friendly employers. Behind those numbers are volunteer mentors, executives, and professionals who sit down with a veteran and say, “Your experience matters. Here's how to show it.” Qantas helped make those conversations possible.
We also bring America's most extraordinary veterans to the people who need to hear them. Through our Medal of Honor Program, recipients of our nation's highest award for valor in combat with an enemy force share their stories firsthand. They speak with veterans, students, and civilian audiences. They talk about the hardest day of their lives and what they've chosen to do with every day since. Courage, commitment, integrity, selfless service: those words stop being abstract when you hear them from someone who has lived them.
And we stand with the families of those who didn't come home. Our newest program, Gold Star Rising, will serve Gold Star youth, the sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters of fallen service members. Through theatre, filmmaking, and creative writing, these young people find their voice, build confidence, and begin to heal. For a teenager who has lost a parent or sibling to war, a stage and an audience that understands can change everything.
Brian Wood, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1998 to 2004, put it this way: “The help that the Heroes Network has provided to me for my career has been amazing. I have to thank everyone [involved] for the mentorship that they have provided me. If I didn't have expertise in something I was asking about, they knew the right people to put me in touch with. Those contacts have been amazing, and they helped me start my business.”
This is but one example of the impact our programs have on America's veterans.
Qantas' mission to hire veterans is not simply smart business. It is a model of corporate commitment to give back to those willing to give all so that we may live under the banner of freedom. It is a model that any and all companies should adopt. In this very hangar, veterans who spent years maintaining military aircraft apply the same precision to every inspection and repair. In your offices, veterans who managed logistics and operations bring the same steadiness to every project. You saw what they could do, and you acted. As an airplane geek, I am standing in hog heaven!
To the veterans in this room: thank you for your service and for showing, every day, what happens when a company believes in you. And to everyone who has welcomed a veteran onto your team, mentored them, and helped them find their footing: you're serving too.
On behalf of all of us at Heroes Linked, our board of directors, board of advisors, professional staff, and the veterans and military families we serve, it's my privilege to present our Distinguished Service Award to Qantas Airways. This award recognizes our steadfast partnership and genuine commitment to hiring those who have served.
It also recognizes something harder to measure: the difference you've made in lives you may never hear about. Those whose careers got started, families that grew more stable, and young people who found their voices again.
Thank you.
