Vietnam veteran to speak at November chamber luncheon

C.H. “Stretch” Dunn, PE, is a 1966 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a distinguished graduate of the Command and General Staff College, an Army War College Fellow and a professional engineer. He served in three Infantry divisions, earned the Expert Infantryman Badge and four awards for valor including the Silver Star in Vietnam. 

He co-invented the Dunn-Kempf war game used to teach a generation of small unit leaders war fighting techniques. Later, he headed a 900 soldier combat unit and a 3,500-person engineering and construction management organization with 40 field offices in the southeast United States and Latin America.

Following retirement after 26 years in the U.S. Army, Dunn served 11 years in corporate America with BE&K, an international engineering and construction firm based in Birmingham. After his second career, he co-wrote two books on professionalism and patriotism and for the past decade offered corporate and university seminars on “Being the CEO of Your Life,” “Professionalism Under Stress,” “Doing the ‘Harder Right’” and “Do You Want the Make the Senior Leadership Leap?”

Dunn serves on the board for his West Point class, several boards in the Birmingham area, the National Leadership Congress, Life Leaders, the Support Committee for the Alabama National Cemetery and the Norton Board at Birmingham Southern College. 

His fourth career is to actively serve the community through his Veterans Leadership Ministry, whose mission is to “provide a safe haven of acceptance and healing for those quietly suffering from the hidden wounds of war.” He enjoys singing in his church choir, the West Point Alumni Glee Club, [at] weddings and patriotic events. 

He lives in Birmingham with his wife Joan, has two married children, both teachers, and five grandchildren. His personal mission is to live life as an obedient servant leader.

– Submitted by Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce.