Triple-amputee Vietnam veteran to keynote Johns Creek's 9/11 ceremony

A triple-amputee Vietnam veteran who has helped more than 30,000 fellow veterans will keynote Johns Creek's 25th-anniversary remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Rotary Club of Johns Creek and the city will host the Patriot Day Commemoration at the Mark Burkhalter Amphitheater in Newtown Park, 3150 Old Alabama Road. Organizers expect 150 to 200 people to attend, The Creek magazine reported.

The program includes a moment of silence, the ringing of a memorial bell for the fallen, and remarks from Mayor John Bradberry, the Johns Creek chief of police, the fire chief and other community leaders. The Johns Creek Veterans Association Color Guard will present the colors, and the Northview High School Chorus will perform patriotic songs.

The keynote speaker

Captain Tommy Clack, U.S. Army (retired), volunteered for the Army in 1966 and served as an artillery forward observer in Vietnam. He was critically wounded on May 29, 1969, on the Cambodian border, losing three limbs, suffering internal injuries and losing his hearing. He spent 22 months at the Atlanta VA Medical Center undergoing 33 operations.

Clack graduated from Georgia State University in 1975. Over a 47-year career in military and government service that began with his 1966 enlistment, he worked with Congress in Washington, D.C., served as staff assistant to the director of the Atlanta VA, and spent 19 years as a veterans service officer in Conyers, Georgia. In that role he personally helped more than 30,000 veterans secure their benefits.

He has also led the creation of more than 300 veterans memorials across the country, including the Georgia War Veterans Memorial Plaza at the State Capitol Complex.

In his speaker biography for the Walk of Heroes 2025 Memorial Day program, Clack described his mission: "Having been pronounced dead in Vietnam, GOD has allowed his path through life to serve as an example of what Faith, discipline and determination can achieve."

Clack has received more than 200 honors, including a presidential Point of Light award from President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and induction into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame in 2013. He delivers more than 50 speeches per year across all 50 states, speaking without written notes.