Last Mission for a Reluctant Patriot, a Vietnam War Memoir
Paul Baffico is a Vietnam veteran who served with the 101st Airborne Division in 1970 and 1971 as a communications platoon leader. He flew 206 combat assaults and qualified for the Air Medal with 7 oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star with 1 oak leaf cluster, and the Army Commendation Medal.
He is a monthly volunteer docent for the National Park Service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC where he has served for 106 consecutive months; he is a certified Peer Support Specialist for Veterans, the 2012 Red Cross Military Hero of the Year for Greater Chicago, is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Lake-McHenry Veterans and Family Services Federal Grant and the founder of the Lake County Veterans and Family Services Foundation. His book about his healing from the invisible wounds of combat entitled Last Mission for a Reluctant Patriot was published in December on Amazon and Kindle.
Paul spent his career at Sears Roebuck and Company. He started as a part-time stock person in San Francisco while attending the University of San Francisco. When he completed his Sears career after 34 years, he was the President of the Automotive Group and the Chairman and CEO of Western Auto.
In 1999 he retired and founded Invisible Intellect, LLC, a small management consulting firm located in Lake Forest. He has contracted as a Senior Consultant with Bain Consulting, Charles River International Consulting, Kurt Salmon and A. T. Kearney Consulting.
Paul lives in Lake Bluff with his co-author and wife Ann McNamara.