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LCDR Richard Morgan Wright, Jr., USCG (Ret.) was born at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA, the son of Captain Richard Morgan Wright, US Navy (US Naval Academy, ’41, Pearl Harbor – USS Tennessee (BB-43), World War II submariner (seven war patrols), Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Navy and Marine Corps Medal and Knighted by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands as a Commander, Order of the Oranje Nassau) and Marilyn (Burgess) Wright. He married Diane Lynn Morgan and has two children Kelley Jean Wright and Julie Ann Wright.

He has Bachelor of Arts, History from the University of West Florida, 1974, Master of Arts, Economics from the University of West Florida, 1978, and U.S. Army Aviation School, 1970.

Captain, U.S. Marine Corps 1969-1978

  • Naval Aviator: UH-1H and CH-46D helicopters

  • Combat tour: Hoi An, Vietnam '71-'72 (Subunit 1, Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (1st ANGLICO) and Air Liaison Officer, 2nd Brigade, Republic of Korea Marines) Awarded the Purple Heart, Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal w/ Combat “V” (for valor) and the Combat Action Ribbon

  • Flight Instructor, HT-18 Squadron, U.S. Navy Flight School, Pensacola, FL

  • Search and Rescue Pilot, Station Operations and Engineering Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, NC

Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Coast Guard 1978-1994

  • Coast Guard Aviator: HH3F helicopter

  • Search and Rescue Pilot (New Orleans, LA, Sitka, AK, 202 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Scotland, UK, and Traverse City, MI)

  • Operations Officer, Administration Officer, Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, MI (Received the US Coast Guard Commandant’s Letter of Commendation)

  • Chief, Aviation Life Support Branch and Program Manager, Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Program, USCG Headquarters, Washington, DC (Awarded the Coast Guard Commendation Medal)

  • Director of Safety and Flight Operations, Helicopter Association International, 1996-2006.

Society Memberships

  • Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (Governor General)
  • Aztec Club of 1847 (former President)
  • National Huguenot Society (President, Virginia Society)
  • Order of the Norman Conquest (Fourth Vice President)
  • Baronial Order of Magna Charta (Surety)
  • Winthrop Society Archivist (former)
  • National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (former Vice President, Northern Michigan Chapter)
  • National Gavel Society
  • Society of the Cincinnati (Massachusetts)
  • Order of the Merovingian Dynasty
  • Order of the Crown In America
  • Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the United States of America
  • Order of Three Crusades 1096-1192
  • Order of Descendants of the Justiciars
  • Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry
  • National Guild of Saint Margaret of Scotland
  • National Society of Saints and Sinners
  • Society of Descendants of Lady Godiva
  • General Society of Mayflower Descendants
  • General Society of Colonial Wars (New Jersey)
  • Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors
  • General Society Sons of the Revolution
  • Hereditary Order Descendants Loyalists & Patriots American Revolution
  • General Society of the War of 1812
  • Military Society of the War of 1812
  • Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
  • National Order of the Blue and Gray
  • Military Order of the Stars and Bars
  • Order of Indian Wars of the United States
  • Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy
  • Order of Descendants of Colonial Physicians and Chirurgiens
  • Order of the Founders of North America 1492-1692
  • Descendants of Sheriffs & Constables of Flagon and Trencher
  • Order of the First World War

Honors

  • Honoree, National Purple Heart Hall of Honor 

  • Inducted into Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society – 1974

  • Awarded the President’s Award by the Association of Air Medical Services for Extraordinary Service in the promotion of aviation safety – 2001

  • Awarded a Grant of Arms by the College of Arms, London, England- 2012

  • Inducted into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels – 2014

  • Awarded the U.S. Coast Guard's Victor Rouland Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Award for Distinguished Achievement - 2019.

Membership in the following non-Hereditary societies and organizations:

  • Ancient Free & Accepted Masons - Master Mason - Henry Lodge No, 57 (Past Master)

  • Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite - 32nd Degree Scottish Rite - Alexandria Valley Temple

  • Royal Arch Masons-Fauquier Chapter No. 25

  • The Heraldry Society, London

  • The Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl (The Association of Coast Guard Aviation)

  • 202 Squadron Association-Royal Air Force

  • Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association

  • Combat Helicopter Pilots Association

  • U.S, Naval Academy Alumni Association (Class of 1969)

  • Military Order of the Carabao

  • Military Order of Foreign Wars

  • Veterans of Foreign Wars

  • Authorships

  • "Edward Wright of Sudbury, Massachusetts"

  • "Allied Families of Edward Wright"

  • "William Burgess of Concord, Massachusetts and Allied Families"

  • "The Morgan Family of Greenbrier County, West Virginia"

  • "The Holcomb Family of Virginia"

  • "The Camden Family of Virginia"

Listed In (Publications)

"U.S. Coast Guard Aviation, 1916 - 1996"

"So Others May Live - Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmers"

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