Info Sheet - Terry Branham
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1LT Terry Branham, Centaur 46, was a Cobra Pilot with D Troop from Nov 1969 to December 1970.
He enlisted and served 26 years active duty in the US Army and retired as a Colonel and Master Army Aviator.
He served in Vietnam as a Cobra Attack Helicopter Pilot and Platoon Leader, was awarded the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross.
Twenty years later during the Gulf War he was an Apache Helicopter Squadron Commander and Apache Pilot leading the first Squadron sized Apache attack into Iraq.
As a Colonel, because of his extensive night operations experience, He was asked to lead the Department of State Air Wing for the U.S. Drug War in South America for over 2 ½ years. His unit of 13 Army Officers and 500 contract and host nation people with 60 Helicopters and 12 Thrush Spray Aircraft were operating out of a Florida base in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Belize and Ecuador performing night assaults into the jungle to destroy cocaine labs, spray Cocaine and Heroin crops in the mountains, and to capture drug cartel aircraft transiting drugs from and thru these countries. Terry managed a budget of $31 million dollars supported his team that would capture over 1 Billion dollars in drugs each year.
Terry also served as a Field Artillery Battery Commander, a Field Artillery Battalion S-3, an Aviation Battalion S-3 in South Korea, a Cobra Attack Helicopter Company Commander, an Aviation Brigade Executive Officer, a Nuclear Weapons Security Instructor in Germany and Department of the Army Inspector General Nuclear Weapons Security and Surety Inspector for worldwide certifications.
He and his wife Barb reside in Lakeville, MN and serve as a Marriage Mentor couple for Pre-Marriage Couples with Mercy Road Church. Terry co-leads a team of men funded by the Lakeville VFW Post to build disability ramps for disabled veterans and their families across the entire metro area and have built 80 ramps in the past 8 years.
He is also the Secretary of the Tee It Up for the Troops organization, a national non-profit organization that has donated over $11,000,000 to programs that deliver critical services to help veterans from all eras heal and transition from the battlefront to the home front.